A Different Mary Sue
by Yva J
Summary: Mary Sue Hudson is not your typical teenager. Aslan brings her into Narnia with a very unlikely task in mind, and it is not romance. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

**A Different Mary Sue**

By: Yva J.

**Part 1**

She wasn't the kind of girl that you would want to spend endless days getting to know, especially if you were a boy with romantic intentions. Her name was Mary Sue, but that was just the luck of the draw, and meant nothing whatsoever when you got down to brass tacks.

Mary Sue Hudson was not your typical girl, not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact she kept her hair cropped short, wore a baseball cap and chewed gum as though she was on a mission of some sort. She had been playing baseball with the local boys since she could throw one, and could whip up on any boy who even looked at her the wrong way. The fourteen-year-old girl never once thought about going and falling in love with anyone, in fact, she often remarked how she'd rather kiss a beaver than a boy.

Now that she was in school and constantly hearing endless stories about Narnia and how cute the High King Peter was or how much her peers swooned over Edmund, his younger brother. Somewhere, she could feel her gagging reflexes take hold and she would annoy her friends in the halls at school by taking out a mashed up copy of a teen magazine and drawing little mustaches and eyeglasses across the faces of the two boys. She was simply not impressed.

The worst thing for her was hearing people talk about Mary Sues as being these girls with ribbons and curls, falling head over heels in love with some knight on a dashing steed. Forget letting those boys even try to save her, she could take care of herself. Just let them try to play Mr. Right with me, she thought, the very idea, she scowled every time her name was used in such a way.

Huffily, she walked down the road, her eyes staring at the pavement and her tennis shoes scraping disdainfully across the ground. If I could only get my chance, she thought bitterly, then I'd go to Narnia and have a real adventure, not one of those, bleech, romances. I would tell those boys that they're not all that, she thought to herself, that they should get over themselves and enjoy Narnia for what it was, a place of high adventure. She'd show them all that this Mary Sue was not one for all that crap, that she would beat the whoopee out of any boy who tried something with her. Leave the romance to the grown-ups was her philosophy, and that was the way it would stay. I'm still a kid, give me a baseball mitt instead of a wedding band.

She continued to make her way down the street, her eyes scanning the street. Around her, younger girls skipped rope, their voices filling the air.

Peter and Louise sitting in a tree...K-i-s-s-i-n-g…

Their voices drifted off and Mary Sue swallowed. "Peter doesn't even exist, he's fantasy."

"Fantasy, huh?" A voice emerged and she looked up to see a larger than life lion standing in front of her.

"Oh boy," Mary Sue muttered. "What is happening?"

"You're about to get your wish," the lion said. "You will go on the adventure you have wanted. No romance, but you will learn that friendship is a bond much stronger."

"You're Aslan, right?" She asked, but before the lion could respond, she swallowed. "But you're not real."

"I am real, and believe me, Mr. Beaver would not be all that intent on kissing you either, especially with all that pink stuff you have in your mouth," the lion said with what appeared to be a smile if one would call it that.

"I am not kissing anybody and you can't make me!" Mary Sue shouted. "So you can put that in your little pipe and smoke it."

"Child, do you honestly think that I would bring you to Narnia with the intentions of having you kiss anyone?" Aslan asked and with a wave of his paw, she could see that the city streets was no longer visible, in fact, they were now standing beside the lamppost.

Mary Sue looked at it and gasped, along the structure of the metallic object was pink colored graffiti with the words 'King Peter is Hot', and 'King Edmund Rocks'. "You weren't kidding, this nonsense has infiltrated Narnia?"

Aslan nodded solemnly, "The truth Mary Sue is that my land of Narnia needs your help, not the Kings and Queens per se, but the talking beasts implore you to take up the armor and fight against this invasion."

"Invasion, now that sounds like an adventure," she smiled.

"It's a different sort of invasion, I'm afraid. We have been invaded by love-sick girls from your world, and we need someone with a level head and mind to come in and help maintain some sort of order. Since kids are the only ones who can get into Narnia, I have come to your world looking for a girl who can enter this country with a sense of duty, and a willingness to not become another Narnian statistic."

"I could get infected by this? Is that what you're saying?" Mary Sue asked. "I could run the risk of becoming like them?"

"Yes, lovesickness cannot even be cured even with Queen Lucy's cordial," the noble lion said. "You could get infected if you allow your lackadaisical emotions to run away with you."

"But I thought love was important to you," Mary Sue said, still uncertain she could do what Aslan was asking.

"Love yes, love is the emotion that Narnia was created in, but lovesickness makes girls do things that they wouldn't normally do," Aslan said and motioned towards the graffiti covered lamppost. "Such as this, now will you accept the task and help me fight for a pink graffiti free Narnia?"

Mary Sue shifted her baseball cap and looked at the lion. "Will I get a sword?" She asked, her eyes brightening somewhat.

"You won't be needing a sword," the lion said.

"Oh I won't huh? Well what sort of adventure is this if I don't have something to protect me?" She asked as she stubbornly put her hands on her hips.

"You'll need your logic, not your physical strength," Aslan said simply. "Will you accept the task, Mary Sue?"

"OK, if you think I can do it, then who am I to argue with you about it?" She asked, but nodded her head. "You can count on me, Aslan."


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

As they left the lamppost, Aslan led her through a large meadow and into a wood. "Look sharp," he said. "Everywhere around, there could be signs of invaders watching and waiting for you to let your guard down."

Mary Sue nodded. "Sounds like walking through a mine-field," she muttered.

"No, it's far more dangerous, one breath from them, and the lovesickness will be cursing through your veins like nothing in the world." He looked around casually and nodded. "Your task is to make it Cair Paravel with this," he motioned with his paw and a glass bottle appeared in her hand.

"What is this?" She asked.

"It's a bottle of honey dew drops. It counters the lovesickness, and it is the only weapon you will need. If anyone tries to infect you, then take a drop of it and swallow. That should reverse the effects of the lovesickness." He watched as she continued to smack loudly on her gum and sighing, he looked at her. "Would you please dispense with the gum, it is rather unappealing to watch you do that?"

"Well, then it will help me attack that lovesickness stuff," Mary Sue said with a smirk on her face as she blew a large bubble and it popped, thus leaving a smattering of pink goo across her face.

"Perhaps you are right," Aslan conceded. "I must be off, can you take care of yourself here?"

"You're going to leave me here alone?" She asked credulously.

"You will take the cordial I gave you and if you even start to feel romantic attractions to anyone in Narnia, then you will do as I instructed with it. From here, you will journey to Cair Paravel. There you will see me again and I shall tell you what must be done. It is going to be up to you, Mary Sue to help save Narnia," he said gravely.

"OK, I'll do as you say, but I feel weird about this," she said.

"I shall appoint you a guide then," he said and as he spoke, the faun Tumnus made his way through the woods and reached them. The faun held in his hands an umbrella, but instead of using it as protection against the elements, he was using it as protection against the girls.

"My cave, Aslan, it is a wreck, those Daughters of Eve have strewn it with pick flowers and decorations. Can you imagine? My father, rest his soul, would turn if he were to behold all that pink!" The faun looked at Mary Sue. "Oh no, not another one. Aslan, please, anything but that."

"Come on, Mr. Tumnus, the only thing pink about me is my bubble gum," Mary Sue said as she began to blow yet another bubble. "See, I'm not going to wind pink flowers through your hair, or paint your hooves with pink nail polish."

Tumnus reacted with horror. "Oh no, not even female fauns wear such outrageous accessories."

Aslan looked at him. "My dear Tumnus, Mary Sue is here to help us rid Narnia of what it is you fear the most. She has been brought from her world to help us save Narnia from the pink invasion."

"You are here to help us?" Tumnus asked.

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. And let's get one thing straight," she began. "I have not now, or ever, been in love with High King Peter, King Edmund or even with you. I think you're all rather cool and all, but I am not interested in falling in love and all that smoochy-kooing. My interests are in baseball, which you've probably never heard of, swordplay, pirate movies, and anything and everything that keeps these lips," she pointed to her mouth and continued, "…away from those of the opposite gender, whether it be man or talking beast. Is that alright with you?"

Tumnus nodded shyly, but spoke, his voice quivering somewhat. "A-are you sure you're a Daughter of Eve?"

"Last time I checked, I was, but tell me, would you rather have me around, or about a hundred of those?" Mary Sue asked as she pointed between a crop of trees and from where they were standing, they could see an army of pink, lacy clad females running towards them.

"Oh Aslan, you great big hunk of Lion, come and give me a big kiss," one of the girls squealed and Mary Sue stood and watched as the noble lion's eyes suddenly widened and without even a second thought, he turned and started to run as fast as his legs would carry him out of the woods and away from the horde of swooning and screaming girls.

"What a pussy cat," One of the girls purred as they ran past Mary Sue.

For his part, Tumnus concealed himself between the trees and watched as they breezed past him, a perfumed stench flowing behind them, and Mary Sue found herself pinching her nose and holding her breath for all it was worth to keep them from being contaminated by them.

Once the crowd had passed, she motioned for Tumnus to come out. "The coast is clear, I wish I could say the same for the air. Yuck, I think they've been bathing in Obsession!"

Tumnus looked at her. "If they had seen me, I'd have been a goner!"

"You mean to tell me that this sort of thing could have really hurt you?" She asked.

"I don't want to find out," he said honestly. "When they redecorated my cave, I was taking sanctuary at the beavers' dam. That is, when the invasion started, they went from the lamppost to my cave, my beautiful cave, now it's covered with pink streamers and flowers," he said sorrowfully. "They'd have probably covered me with them too, had I been home."

Mary Sue looked at the faun. "Not to worry, we'll make it to Cair Paravel, Mr. Tumnus," she said with a determined look on her face. "But, first I think we should get out of sight. When those girls realize that they cannot catch Aslan, they are bound to retrace their steps, and it would probably be wise for us to be out of the area when that happens."

The faun nodded and the two hastened through the wood until they reached the door leading towards the beavers' dam.

_a/n thanks to those of you who reviewed this story thus far. I'm just learning to navigate my way around, so a special thanks and kudoes go out to Capegio for giving me the heads up on editing! _


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

The air had started to settle back to the typical scents of Narnia by the time Tumnus knocked on the door leading into the beavers' cozy den. Yet, the subtle odors of fish and fries did little to sooth the faun's overwhelming nervousness about the events that had just transpired.

Mary Sue, on the other hand, smiled as she smelled the tantalizing food, and realizing that she had not had her mid-afternoon / post 'school is torture' snack, she could feel her mouth beginning to water. This, if anything, made her smack even louder on her bubblegum, and with each smack, Tumnus found himself cringing unconsciously.

If truth were known, the faun feared that the sounds were from the weight of cracking wood branches beneath the feet of the girls and not from the girl who was standing right next to him. Before he could say anything to her about this, the door swung open and they were looking down into the kindly face of Mrs. Beaver.

"I thought that you'd be my husband, Tumnus," she said in a greeting, "but do come in." She cast a wary look up at the girl in the blue jeans, hockey jersey, and baseball cap. "Will you and the Son of Adam care to stay for supper? We're having fresh fish and fries."

"The Son of Adam wouldn't," Mary Sue supplied as an answer not missing a beat, nor caring that the beaver had mistaken her gender, for it happened all the time. "But, the Daughter of Eve would love it."

"You're a girl?" The beaver asked with obvious surprise.

"Yep," came the answer along with loud smacking and popping of the gum. "But don't worry about it, people have thought I was a boy for years, it's really no big deal." She shrugged her shoulders but inhaled the pleasant smells of the food.

The beaver smiled and nodded. "My most humble apologies, Daughter of Eve."

"Oh forget it," Mary Sue said with a casual wave of her hand, but found herself literally encased in silence as she looked around the den and smiled. "This place is fantastic," she remarked without hiding the traces of awe in her voice. "Did you build it yourself?"

"Mr. Beaver did, back when we were courting, that was years and years ago," Mrs. Beaver said with a melancholy smile. "But it used to look much better than it does now."

"What do you mean?" The girl asked as she stopped surveying the den and went over to the table where Tumnus had seated himself, and took a seat next to him. As she made herself comfortable, the kindly beaver placed a mug in front of her and she leaned over and smelled the contents before picking it up and taking a sip, the hot bullion tasting wonderfully and making the girl feel warm inside. As she replaced the mug, she waited for the beaver to answer.

"Before the invasion started, Mr. Beaver had put hours upon hours of work into our burrow as well as the dam. When Father Christmas gave him the finished dam several seasons ago, we were both extremely happy, but things have changed since then."

"So, in other words it's not like that anymore?" Mary Sue asked and looked at Tumnus.

"Things have been grave since the girls invaded," Tumnus said earnestly.

"How in the world did they get in, then?" Mary Sue asked. "Did they find rings, or use a wardrobe or some other form of magic to find their way here?"

"From what I have heard tell, there are many ways to reach Narnia, I'm afraid," the beaver said as the front door suddenly opened and slammed shut, thus announcing Mr. Beaver's return home. A relieved Mrs. Beaver got to her feet and turned towards the door but gasped when she laid eyes on her husband.

Upon hearing the female beaver's reaction, Mary Sue looked up to see that he was standing in the room, but he did not look anything like a beaver. He was covered from head to tail with flowers, ribbons and lace. Behind him and affixed to his tail, streamers and lace were dragging along the floor. "Oh brother," the teenager muttered under her breath as she beheld the beaver's appearance.

Tumnus seemed to be the first of the group to recover and he looked at the beaver. "What in the name of Aslan has happened to you?"

"What do you think happened?" The beaver snapped. "I was coming home by way of the beavers' secret hideout and saw twenty or thirty of them. They came in droves, like pink waves upon the water. They cornered me and decided to decorate me as they did your cave, Tumnus. I will say this truthfully, this is worse than things were under the white witch, at least she didn't bathe in stinky water. Now I will have to bathe for a third time this year!"

"Oh how horrible," Mary Sue remarked as she tried to conceal a small smile and exchanged amused glances with Mrs. Beaver.

Of course, the beaver really looked as though he was a rock star in our world and had been mobbed by groupies. Mary Sue concluded that the girls must have intercepted him when they had been chasing after Aslan. Not only was he covered to the hilt with ribbons and lace, his normally brown colored coat was covered with smears of makeup. The stench of perfume seemed to fill the cave, thus mixing with the food that Mrs. Beaver had painstakingly prepared and thus, left a disgusting mixture of fish and sweeter than sugar perfume in its wake.

Mr. Beaver looked at Mary Sue. "Things aren't normally this chaotic here," he offered.

"I believe you, but when Aslan told me about the state of Narnia, I didn't want to believe him. I thought he was kidding, then I saw how things really were here, and now I can't help but believe that things have really gotten out of hand."

"It is, the meadow is no longer safe for Sons of Adam or talking beasts," the beaver said earnestly. "This is probably why Aslan had to send for a Daughter of Eve to help us."

Tumnus looked at his friend. "You should have seen what happened with Aslan earlier today. He had to run away to get away from them. Not even the great and noble lion is safe when there are lovesick girls in the vicinity."

"What ever shall we do?" Mrs. Beaver asked.

"At daybreak, Mary Sue and I will leave for Cair Paravel," Tumnus said. "There, we are to meet up with Aslan and she will receive a task to fulfill that, which should ultimately help us all."

The beavers nodded as Mr. Beaver started to walk towards the door leading into their bedroom. Mrs. Beaver's voice suddenly made him stop cold in his tracks. "First a bath, and then you can retire, my dear husband. Otherwise, you're going to have to sleep outside."

"You can't be serious, I'll be mobbed again," he grumbled.

"I have not been this serious since the last time you were in need of a bath," she said as she took a bath-brush and whacked it meaningfully against the flat palm of her free paw. "Now, march!"

The male beaver released a pent up breath and humbly, he walked towards the bathroom.

Once the two beavers disappeared inside and the door closed behind them, Mary Sue looked at Tumnus. "You see what happens with one becomes an adult, they start bossing everyone else around." She shook her head. "I ask you, who really needs it?"

Tumnus shook his head. "You've got a point, but what I don't understand is why the girls would go after Mr. Beaver, he's married."

"Since when has that stopped them from swooning and crooning?" Mary Sue asked. "Believe me, Mr. Tumnus, if you were to just walk around my school on any given day, then you would see that they are like an army just waiting for someone, anyone, to let down their guard."

"Well, they did, look at the state Narnia is in," he said. "But, I must ask, if we do succeed in sending them back to where they came from, would your world be safe?"

"Our world has survived for generations with this sort of thing, I think it will be OK, but Narnia…I can't help but feel really sad about the state of things here, I had no idea when Aslan showed up that things had gotten this bad," Mary Sue said honestly.

It was at this moment that Tumnus realized for the first time since meeting the young tomboy, that she was really a caring person and her concern for Narnia had been what kept her there, and at that moment, it became all the more clear to the faun why it was that Aslan had picked her to help them over anyone else.

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_a/n Again thanks for the reviews, it is greatly appreicated and I hope that you are enjoying this story as much as I am. Just for basic information, this is not intended to infringe on anyone's copyrights and so on._


	4. Chapter 4

a/n: Thanks again to all of you for the great reviews. I really appreciate it.

* * *

**Part 4**

After dinner, Mary Sue retrieved her bubble gum from the side of her plate, wrapped it in a silvery coated piece of paper and slipped it discretely into the pocket of her jeans. Both beavers had returned from having bathed Mr. Beaver, and though he did not look even remotely happy, he did look a hundred percent better and much to everyone's relief, the perfume odors were now a thing of the past.

As she picked the last bite of fish from the bone, the teenager leaned back in her chair full and contented and waited for the others to finish their meal as well. As Mrs. Beaver started clearing the table, she closed her eyes momentarily and stared up at the ceiling of the small burrow where they were now gathered. "What do you suppose Aslan will want me to do once we reach Cair Paravel?" She asked no one in particular, but the question was what had haunted her mind since the noble lion had fled from her and Tumnus earlier that afternoon.

"I don't rightfully know," Mr. Beaver responded as he ran his paws down over his stomach. He would never admit it to his wife, but he was glad to be clean, he once more felt like himself, and hoped against hope that he would never have to go through something like that again.

"Whatever it is that he will ask of you, Mary Sue, it is bound to be dangerous, but he will be with you and will help you if he is able," Mrs. Beaver affirmed gently.

"Yeah dangerous," she mused. "And worse still, Aslan wouldn't even give me a sword to defend myself, instead all I have to protect us is a bottle of honey dew. I can't understand how that will protect anything. If you ask me, what it looks like is that Narnia has been exposed to an epidemic of mass proportions."

"The question is, how would one deal with such an epidemic?" Mrs. Beaver asked.

"The only way I know is to try and quarantine the sick from the healthy," Mary Sue mused. "But, I've never heard of anything like lovesickness and the rate it spreads, it might as well be the bubonic plague."

"The what?" The three Narnians looked at her, the very same question emerging at precisely the same instant.

"It's just an expression," Mary Sue said with an escaped sigh. "The truth is, I fear that it will not help to change matters at all because the more we quarantine them, the more likely we could get contaminated by these germs ourselves."

"It sounds rather hopeless then," Mrs. Beaver sighed.

"Perhaps, but we have to try," Mary Sue said sharply. "If this thing is catching, then the only way to help Narnia is to cure everyone at one time. Either that or we find a way to get the girls out of this world and back into their own. Even if we do try that, then once we have them back into their world, then we would have to find out how to prevent them from getting back into Narnia, and right now, I have absolutely no idea how to do any of those things."

"Aslan would know," Mr. Beaver affirmed.

"Yeah, if he didn't caught by those wackos," Mary Sue mused.

"Wackos?" Tumnus mouthed the word.

"It means crazy people, nut cases, weirdoes," Mary Sue tried to explain, but the more she tried to explain her vocabulary, the more confused the three Narnians became. Eventually she gave up and looked at them. "Look, I know that Aslan is not a tame lion, but I could hear them, those girls were calling him a 'pussy cat'. Even he may not be immune from all of this. Can't you imagine what Narnia would be like if this started to affect Aslan?" Mary Sue asked, her face still void of color. "And if he goes, then we might as well migrate elsewhere and start calling this place 'Stink-Pink Waste'."

"Stink-Pink waste? That doesn't even sound right," Mr. Beaver said with a shake of his furry head.

"You know what I mean, but you're right, it doesn't sound right, the idea is worse than any nightmare I've ever had," Mary Sue said bringing her fist down on the table. "Do any of you know how the other talking beasts are faring in all of this, or how the nymphs and dryads are doing?"

"I don't know, but I did see giant Rumblebuffin some time ago, and he seems to be fine, I can't very well imagine a lovesick giant in Narnia, and maybe he's too tall to be affected by any of this," Tumnus said shaking his head.

"I wish that was the case, Tumnus," Mrs. Beaver said as she shook her head sadly. "I saw him only days ago, dressed in pink he was, carrying a basket of red carnations and doing pirouettes as though he was on a stage. It was as though the poor dear had entered his second childhood. He was singing, his voice literally shaking the trees."

"Did you see where he went?" Mary Sue asked.

"I don't rightfully know," Mrs. Beaver responded. "I had to hide myself so that he wouldn't step on me. Injuries by giants is a painful business, you understand."

"Of course, but if he had his wits about him, we could use him as safe transport to Cair Paravel, that would be only two or three steps for him, but if he is, as you say, affected by this, then it could be dangerous for us to try to find or contact him. He could fall in love in Mary Sue," Mr. Beaver said.

"Oh good grief," Mary Sue grumbled. "Look, we're just going to have to travel as Aslan intended, and hope against hope that those girls didn't catch up with him. I cannot imagine the great Aslan purring and drinking milk at the feet of one of them. It would destroy every image I have ever had of him." She shook her head. "The fact remains, we have to get to Cair Paravel, I just wish that I had something besides honey-dew to fend them off, and all Mr. Tumnus has with him is his umbrella."

Mr. Beaver nodded. "I think what must be done is for you to leave our den tonight, as opposed to first light. Journeying through these woods during the night may prove safer since I noticed that at night, the migrations of these creatures is drastically lessened than during the day. Of course, they still do travel, but where they go is a mystery, because I don't even think they know where they are going."

"Stands to reason since they seem to generally be so caught up in their swooning and crooning that they completely lose the ability to actually navigate the terrain," Mary Sue rationalized. "My older brother Steve said that girls generally use landmarks and not maps, and in a darkened wood, there are no such landmarks except for the trees. I think that we can use this to our advantage."

"Then perhaps we should come with you," Mr. Beaver said and looked at his wife. "We know the land, we journeyed this way when we took the noble kings and queens to the Stone Table."

Mary Sue's face went pale. "What could they have done to the Stone Table?" She whispered more to herself than to the others.

"We don't know, we haven't seen it since it cracked, but one thing is clear, when those girls reach the stone table, they will not have to travel too much further to reach the castle. We have to reach it before they do," Tumnus said. "If the Kings catch this lovesickness, then it will only be a matter of time for the whole of Narnia will be swallowed up by it."

Mary Sue nodded. "Then we must be off now, and we haven't a moment to lose. I will not sleep until we get to Cair Paravel and I can do my part to help put this rubbish to an end."


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

It was dark by the time the two beavers led Mary Sue and Tumnus through the woods towards a small and concealed burrow. "We'll camp out here for tonight," Mr. Beaver announced softly with a final glance around the area. "The burrow is for beavers in difficult times and should be a safe haven for us to stay in for a few hours. It probably has not been discovered by anyone yet."

"Are you sure about that?" Mary Sue pointed to the door leading inside. A small strand of pink paper was sticking to it in the form of a heart, and stenciled across it were the words:

_King Edmund + Laura Marie equals Love_

Mary Sue groaned with absolute annoyance. "I would be willing to bet three packs of bubble gum baseball cards that Laura Marie has never even met King Edmund, and even if they did meet, he probably ended up in the bathroom and having to take headache pills because she was wearing too much perfume."

Mrs. Beaver nodded with a paw covering the small smile that played at her lips. "You're probably right dear," she said as Mr. Beaver and Tumnus managed to open the door and they started to go into the burrow but stopped abruptly as they recognized that a lantern was burning dully and the burrow was occupied.

What was inside made Mary Sue's grumblings become all the more louder. Lying in the center of the burrow was girl in a lacy pink dress and ribbons hanging from her curly blonde hair. She was asleep there, next to her body a basket full of what looked to be lacy decorations and bottles of glitter. Tumnus silently pointed to her and spoke, his voice a hushed whisper. "They did find it, and this looks like the same stuff that was used to decorate, or should I say destroy, my cave. What should we do now?"

"Well, seeing as it's only one and there are no others around, maybe we can use her as the guinea pig for the serum that Aslan gave me," Mary Sue said smiling. "If we can cure her, then maybe we can find out how she managed to get into Narnia in the first place."

As she spoke, the girl shifted and slowly started to wake up. Mrs. Beaver took a hesitant step forward as the girl began to rub her tired eyes. When she finally looked up and saw that she was not alone, all four of them sighed as they took in her appearance. Her eyes, of course, were blue, her mouth curled up in an expression reminiscent of that of a porcelain doll and everything about her looked to be perfect and pristine. Mary Sue released a grumble, "so this is what some of my namesakes look like," she said with a frown, but any further contemplations would be ignored when the creature eventually spoke.

"W-what is happening?" She moaned, her voice emerging annoying and Mary Sue released a pent up breath as the sounds of this girl's voice emerged tiny and childlike as opposed to matching her physical stature of being more or less around Mary Sue's age.

Instead of waiting for the girl with the whiny baby voice to continue, Mary Sue came over to her and stood over her with her hands on her hips and looked down at her as though she was a policewoman about to interrogate a suspect.

"Who are you, and how did you get into Narnia?" Mary Sue demanded.

"I'm Cindy Lou," the girl answered and Mary Sue's eyes crossed.

"Don't even tell me, your last name is Who, right?" Mary Sue snapped, her eyes now rolling to the back of her head, but none of the Narnians who were present could even understand why.

"How'd you know that?" Cindy Lou asked.

"I guessed," Mary Sue released a pent up breath as the two word response emerged. Eventually, she looked at Mr. Beaver. "Oh God, one fantasy is enough around here," she muttered to herself. "Now we just have to bring Dr. Seuss into this, too." She began to fumble with the bottle and looked at Cindy Lou. "OK, the name we got, but how did you get into Narnia."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Cindy Lou said dreamily.

"Come on, I need to know," Mary Sue said. "So out with it already before I hang you up by your little blonde curls and whack you to pieces like a piñata with Tumnus' umbrella."

The Faun unconsciously cringed and tightened his grip on the umbrella. He did not know what a piñata was, but the thought of being whacked by an umbrella was not particularly appealing to him.

It was at this moment when Cindy Lou finally looked at Tumnus and started towards him. "You're real…" she spoke, her voice a breathless whisper, her blue eyes, looking like tiny aquamarine colored marbles in the bottom of a fish tank. "…Oh Tumnus, you did call me into Narnia."

"I called you, oh dear, I don't think so," the faun muttered and he looked to Mr. Beaver for some sort of help. Without thinking he held his umbrella so that it would act as a barrier between himself and Cindy Lou. "Please, stay away from me, I uh…" his voice trailed but the umbrella popped open and caught the basket thus sending decorations and glitter every which way.

Mary Sue managed to dodge her way past the incoming objects, but poor Mr. Beaver didn't, he got hit square on by a bottle of pink glitter and was soon covered from head to tail with the strange substance.

Cindy Lou looked at Tumnus, "you called me, my beloved and here I am, sent out of my world into Narnia to take care of you for the rest of your days."

"Look, Cindy Lou, Tumnus doesn't date outside of his own species, OK?" Mary Sue said and grabbed Cindy Lou's arm and tried to pull her away from the now stammering Tumnus. "Now, this burrow looks as though a pink colored hurricane hit and I am guessing that it looks rather like Tumnus' cave, and now poor Mr. Beaver has to take another bath thanks to you. What is your deal girl, is the dating scene back home that bad?"

"But Tumnus is just so cute," Cindy Lou crooned, but rubbed her forehead with her hand as she began to shake her head unsure of what to say next. She started to reach for the basket with the intentions of grabbing something from inside it, but being observant, Mary Sue kicked the basket out of her way and Cindy Lou was left staring at the object longingly.

It was at that precise moment that Mary Sue caught a glimmer of something behind the façade of Cindy Lou's face and she reached for the bottle she carried and pulled it out. "Cindy Lou, do you like honey-dew drops?"

"Yeah, but I like Turkish Delight better," came the answer. "Why?"

"I'm going to share some of mine with you," Mary Sue said and her aggressiveness faded and she took a step towards the girl. As she reached her she managed to give Cindy Lou the two drops from the bottle as Aslan had instructed and waited.

After five minutes, she looked at Mr. Beaver. "Just as I thought, it didn't work. These drops of Aslan's don't work." She turned away from the group, but after several moments, a strange voice spoke up, this one a feminine voice, but it no longer sounded like a whiny baby voice, instead it sounded remotely normal.

"Excuse me, but what do you mean it didn't work?"

Mary Sue took a deep breath and turned around and looked into a pair of eyes, a different pair of eyes, these were hazel, and the girl was no longer dressed in pink, instead she was dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans, her long brown hair hung down over her shoulders in braids on either side. "Who are you?" Mary Sue asked.

"I used to be Cindy Lou, but now thanks to you, my real name is Donna Crue," the girl said, her words emerging in a rhyme and Mary Sue groaned yet again.

"Do you always talk like that?" Mary Sue asked.

"No," Donna answered. "It takes a few minutes for that to wear off. My head feels like I rammed it against a tree or something."

"Just sit down, and tell us, how in the world did you end up as Cindy Lou?" Mary Sue asked.

"It happened rather suddenly, a strange boy showed up at my school and told me that there was a way into Narnia," she began. "Of course I was interested, who wouldn't be, fencing and sports, and balls and stuff? It just sounded cool. Anyway, I thought he was half cracked at first, but I did what he said and somehow I ended up here, dressed in pink with ribbons and lace and doing all these really odd and stupid things. Anyway, he kept telling me that Narnia was made by 'love', but what happened with him was just scary. I never realized just how frightening this all was until I got here and was doing things that I couldn't control."

"Like destroying my cave," Tumnus said.

Donna nodded. "I'm sorry about that, but we couldn't control ourselves, we thought we were doing something nice, but it got crazier by the minute and I couldn't stop myself, it was like an unknown force was controlling me."

"A boy did all this?" Mary Sue asked and once Donna nodded, she continued. "I knew most boys were rats!"

"I don't know if it was a boy or someone else," Donna continued. "He looked like a boy, but I couldn't tell much about him besides that. He was cute, but not dashing, and he gave all the girls in our class two pieces of Turkish Delight apiece, and said that there was more in Narnia than we could have ever wished for. I tasted it but don't remember much else after that, I just remember looking in the mirror after eating the sweets and seeing something that looked like a wedding cake had exploded."

"How awful," Mr. Beaver said as he looked down at himself and groaned outwardly. "Sort of how I feel right now."

Mrs. Beaver patted the shoulder of her husband comfortingly, but they all looked at Mary Sue and waited for her to begin speaking.

"Donna, we're on our way to see Aslan at Cair Paravel and maybe you're meant to come with us and help us defeat this menace," Mary Sue said. "Knowledge is power and Narnia has been invaded by the girls from your class, but this has all been instigated by this boy. The question is, how did he lead all of you into Narnia?"

"I don't know," Donna said softly. "I wish I could remember."

"Well, based on what you told us, this lovesickness is not as catching as we thought, but it has been created by some magical otherworldly force." She started inspecting the contents of the strewn basket and nodded after a few moments. "Just as I thought, there's Turkish Delight in here. That means that either the magic ultimately does wear off, which I think happened with you earlier, because you started groping around for it or you were to use it on other girls, which I seriously doubt."

The other girl nodded. "I was told that if I don't keep taking bites of it, that I would die here."

"You believe that?" Mary Sue asked.

"I didn't know what to believe," Donna said shaking her head.

"Well, that just goes to show how full of malarkey some boys are," Mary Sue grumbled. "You're not going to die here, Donna, that boy was trying to use that threat as a means to control you and the others, now we have to get to Cair Paravel and try put a stop to it."

"I know that now, but I didn't know that before, that was why I kept taking bites of it," Donna responded honestly. "Please forgive me, Mr. Tumnus."

The faun had, by this time retracted his umbrella and smiled weakly at the girl. "It's alright, Daughter of Eve."

Donna looked at Mary Sue. "I know it sounds corny, but when he calls me that, it sounds very sweet."

"Don't go into a relapse, please Donna," Mary Sue warned.

"No, I mean, it just sounds nice, as though, oh forget it, it really does sound cheesy," she said and the five of them set to work to clean up the burrow._

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a/n Again, I really appreciate the reviews, and I ask that if you're reading this, that you please let me know what you think, specifically if this parody part of it is actually working. I have been reading much more along the lines of parody and I ponder if this fits into that genre at all. Let me know your thoughts, and as always thanks for reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6**

Once the burrow had been cleaned, the beavers, Tumnus, Mary Sue, and Donna relaxed somewhat. Mrs. Beaver had taken a brush from her satchel and started to brush her husband's fur down. As she worked, sparkles of pink glitter flew around somewhat, while others drifted to the ground. Mary Sue collected and tossed all of it outside.

"That's much better," Mrs. Beaver said smiling once the glitter was gone and her husband once more was brown.

"Yes," he said and smiled. "All of it without soap or water."

Donna laughed weakly, partly because she thought the beaver was really funny, but also because she thought that it was nice to see how Mrs. Beaver tried to take care of her husband.

Mary Sue seemed unwilling to pay attention to the whole business of the beavers bathing habits, instead she had other thoughts filtering through her mind. The dominating thoughts were centered around the fact that the woods were simply too silent. Even for Narnia, this was strange and unsettling. She wanted to mention this to one of them, but feared that it would jinx the mood, so she kept it to herself. I have got to get my hands on some sort of weapon, she thought. If I have to go against them in battle, there is no way I will be able to fend them off.

Tumnus looked at her after watching her contemplate the situation for some time. "Are you alright?" He eventually asked, his voice filled with traces of seriousness.

"I'm not really sure," she said. "Nothing makes sense here, anymore."

"How do you mean?" Tumnus asked.

"Well, for starters, why did Aslan run away like a scared kitten? He's a strong, tough, brave, and noble lion, that seems so out of character for him. I can't understand how these girls can have such an affect on him. It's just weird."

"I know, but I have to say that none of us are as we once were, this is leaving an impact on all of us, not just on the physical, but pretty much mentally as well. After prolonged exposure to this sort of thing, we cannot move freely around the meadow or take part in the things that represent what Narnia is about. Everything has changed, Mary Sue, and although Aslan did react in a manner I have never seen, you must not forget that he brought you here to help us."

Mary Sue got to her feet. "I know you are trying to encourage me somehow, but I don't know how I can help Narnia, Aslan gave me this bottle of honey-dew, he said that I could help Narnia with my logic and not brute strength. But I am not the sharpest tack in the box, I can't just negotiate our way out of this mess. Talking isn't going to do a bit of good when the ones you're talking to are sitting around here swooning and crooning about boys, fawning over fauns, or acting ballistic about beavers." She shook her head before continuing. "Aslan only gave me this bottle, and nothing else. How can I help save Narnia if I don't even have the means in which to kick some serious bootie?"

Tumnus looked at her. "What else did Aslan say to you?"

"He said I should use my intelligence, but tell me, how can I do that? I can't very well sit down and try to talk logically with these girls, there's not a logical bone in their body right now, they are acting like lunatics. Don't you see? Even you tried to fend Donna's former self off with an umbrella. At least you have that, I haven't got anything to protect myself."

She started towards the door and Tumnus stared after her. Instead of trying to stop her from leaving, he let her go and watched as she stepped outside and the door closed behind her.

Once she had left the burrow, Mary Sue stood next to the door, her eyes scanning the horizon. The sky was dark blue, the light from the moon shining down on her and the stars peering out as though diamonds on black velvet.

This just was too weird, she thought to herself. There is bound to be a face off eventually, and what have I got to help matters? She sat down quietly on the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest and draped her arms casually across them. Her eyes closed momentarily but after several moments, she abruptly opened them once again. She had heard a rustling sound in the nearby bushes and quickly stood up and backed slowly in the direction of the burrow door.

The sounds grew louder still and soon she could see that five of the girls were now standing in the clearing some two meters from where she had been seated. They did not block her way into the burrow, but if they had seen her going inside, then they would have caught the rest of her friends. She knew that there was no way that she would let that happen, so instead of moving, she turned momentarily and spotted a large tree branch. Quickly, she scurried over to it, grabbed it and held it in front of herself as she had seen Tumnus do so many times before with his umbrella. Her hands gripped tightly to both ends and her eyes were filled with anger as she noticed how the girls were coming even closer, their giggling filling Mary Sue's ears.

"Oh he's mine," one of the girls giggled as she came closer and Mary Sue immediately realized that the girls assumed her to be a boy, just as Mrs. Beaver had mistook her for a Son of Adam. She made eye contact with them and could see that these girls were looking at her as though she had stepped out from the pages of the latest teen gossip magazine.

"Oh crap!" Mary Sue muttered under her breath as the girls inched even closer. She gripped even tighter to the tree branch and held it out in front of her. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stop right there."

"Why?" One of the girls giggled. "We have you outnumbered, there's five of us and only one of you."

Mary Sue couldn't help but agree, but she was tougher than they, and from the looks of them, they all seemed to be a bunch of powder puffs addicted to magical Turkish Delight. Without thinking, she released a pent up breath, but this time, she moved her right hand down to the other end of the branch and now held the object as though holding a baseball bat. "If you don't want to end up in left field, I would suggest that you stop right there."

"Left field? Is that in Narnia?" Another of the girls swooned. "Are you asking me out for a date in this left field?"

"Cripes, she still thinks I'm a boy," Mary Sue muttered, but she looked at the girl. "I don't date girls, and I sure don't try to force myself onto boys," she said evenly.

"Are you a boy or a girl?" The third girl asked.

Mary Sue's eyes rolled, but instead of speaking, she gripped the tree branch even tighter and watched as the group of girls came another step closer. She wanted to swing, but for some unknown reason, she couldn't.

Just before they could reach out and touch her, a loud roar ripped its way through the woods and the five lovesick girls and Mary Sue turned and found themselves looking into the golden eyes of Aslan.

"Where have you been?" Mary Sue shouted to him and the noble lion cast a sideways glance towards her. Slowly, his gaze returned to the five girls, who now stood looking almost petrified before him.

"Mary Sue, put down the branch and take out your bottle of honey-dew drops," Aslan instructed as he situated his body between the girls and waited for her to do as he had said.

"What?" She shook her head. "Aslan, I can't do that, I have to protect myself from them."

"You do better protecting yourself by getting these girls on your side," he said. "You need an army, Mary Sue. You cannot protect anyone by yourself, it takes courage, but it also takes trust, and friendship."

"Excuse me? Aslan, they will never be on my side, they mean to destroy Narnia, they mean to try and turn this into a pink wonderland," Mary Sue said earnestly. It was at that moment that she was seriously starting to doubt everything Aslan had been telling her.

"It takes but one event at a time to change things, and you can either use that branch and send the whole group of them flying, or you can use what I gave you and not only help save these Daughters of Eve, but also save Narnia. You did so with Donna, why can't you imagine doing so in this situation?"

Mary Sue looked down at the stick in her hand.

"There will be plenty of time to, as you say, 'kick some serious bootie', when you have your support rallied behind you," Aslan said. "Give them the choice."

Mary Sue looked at the girls who seemed as though they were standing there captured in time, they were unmoving and one began to reach inside her basket for the Turkish Delight. Finally, she looked at the girls. "Hey, stop that, you're not going to die without it, but you will at least be yourselves again and not some toy that a boy wants to use you to serve his own sick fantasies. Think about it, you are all his prisoners, trapped in this lovesickness. I will also emphasize that it is sick, you are being manipulated in ways that you cannot even imagine. Now, you have a choice, either take some of my honey-dew, or you eat that poison and remain some fluffy, idiotic, lovesick fool. Your choice."

Three of the girls stopped what they were doing, they were, after all the closest to returning to themselves, but the other two just stood stupidly watching and staring as the three girls contemplated Mary Sue's words.

The first girl's blonde curls had started to fall out, literally, the ground was suddenly covered with locks of hair and Mary Sue could detect patches of dirty blonde hair beneath it. Even in the darkness of the forest, there was enough light where she could see it. The girl herself, looked as though she was some sort of reptile beginning to molt out of her old skin and taking form in her new.

The second girl was not so far along, but she kept backing up and stepping forward as though in a dance. Mary Sue smiled as she somehow remembered the swinging android from an old television rerun where the monster had no idea what to do given two options, be a mad scientist's slave, or become a good guy. She smiled as the girl kept swinging her way around, looking rather like the android from that show. Finally, from all that swinging, she conked her head on a low lying tree branch and knocked herself out.

The third girl stood staring as though trapped between two chairs. One of her friends unconscious and the other molting. She began to rub her chin contemplatively but still no words emerged. After a second, she reached into the pocket of her frilly dress and pulled out a pair of thick rimmed glasses and put them on.

Mary Sue continued to watch this, and she looked at Aslan. "What in your name is going on?"

"Mary Sue, meet Mary Beth, one of the bravest Daughters of Eve to ever walk into Narnia," Aslan said.

Mary Sue looked at the third girl, and watched as she literally ripped her way out of the dress and stood before her, dressed in what appeared to be a white lab coat. Next, she ripped off a blonde wig and threw it to the ground.

"What are you waiting for? Early Spring?" Mary Beth asked. "Give them some of the honey-dew."

"I don't get it," Mary Sue whispered and looked at Aslan.

"No time to explain, you want those other two, or shall I go after them?" Aslan asked. "They have to be stopped, they could tell the others about the whole operation and that would ruin everything, we would never get Narnia back to the way it was."

Mary Sue handed Mary Beth the bottle and picked up the branch, "take care of them, something tells me you really are on our side."

Mary Beth smiled and nodded as she accepted the cordial. "I've been working on the inside track since this started." Without any further words, she went over and gave two drops of the substance to the molting girl, and then two drops to the girl who had danced into the tree.

Seconds later, Mary Sue took off running after the two remaining girls, but it didn't take much time for her to catch up with them, they were, of course, lousy runners. "Hey, I thought you wanted to ask me out," she shouted mockingly at them. As her voice filled the area, she casually leaned up against a tree and waited. These words caused the two girls to stop and turn around. "Why are you so scared of me all of the sudden?"

The girls regarded her, their blue eyes and perfect faces filling with contempt and hurt. One of their lips quavered.

"You mock us," one of them said.

"You're brilliant," Mary Sue chided. "I guess that's what happens when you hang around with rocket scientists." She chortled and the two girls came nearer.

"Don't do it again," the second girl said, "or we'll have to hurt you."

"Oh but how would you ever do that? Throw a powder puff at me?" Mary Sue continued to laugh at them, but the two girls came even closer, one reaching into her basket and trying to pull out a piece of Turkish Delight.

"But, no, we want to share our sweets with you," they both said in unison.

Mary Sue looked at them. "I don't eat sweets," she retorted. She was speaking the truth, she rarely ate anything sweet, even her bubble gum was sugar free.

"You don't?" One of the girls asked.

"No, I don't," Mary Sue responded as she stepped away from the tree, the branch now visible. "My dad's a dentist."

"You're lying," the second girl said.

"You want to come closer and say that?" Mary Sue asked and much to her surprise the two girls did come closer, both holding the deadly Turkish Delight in their perfectly manicured fingers. This, of course, was a mistake because when they came within a foot of where Mary Sue was now standing, she reared back with both hands clamped tightly around the branch. Once it was heaved it up behind her shoulder, she swung it, her eyes closing as the branch impacted the intended targets.

Piercing screams abruptly filled the air and she opened her eyes to see that the two girls were now spots of pink and were flying over the trees as though shooting stars. "They're outta here!" Mary Sue shouted as though an announcer for a baseball game. She threw the branch to one side, reached in her pocket, and pulled out her carefully wrapped piece of bubble gum. This she popped casually in her mouth, and smiling impishly, she returned to the burrow.

_

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a/n: As a teenager I was once asked if I was a boy or girl, so this was a great chance to actually use that question in a piece of writing. I really loved writing this chapter, and I hope that you will enjoy it too. Thanks to my reviewers and here's hoping you enjoyed this. Feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated._

_An added notation: this chapter has been edited for runon errors, so it should be OK now. :) Sorry about that.  
_


	7. Chapter 7

_a/n: Before I start this chapter, I want to clarify something about why it is I chose to write this particular story. I don't want to give off the impression that I am adamantly opposed to romance, because I'm not, a good romance, if written well, has the capability to catching my attention, and I have written some stories with romance in them as well as commented on them, so it is not a concept that is beyond or strange to me. No one has said or indicated anything otherwise to me in reviews and such, but I did want to mention it before I continued with this latest part._

_The use of the Mary Sue parody is not done to make fun of, put down, or insult another person or their fiction. I don't want my work here to convey an idea that someone should stop writing because they write a boy meets girl story, that is not this author's intent. Perhaps other writers feel that way, but I do not. The parody makes jibes at the concept, more so than anything else. The concept of the perfect character does not really exist, because there is no perfect character, per se (even Aslan is a bit on the impatient side, which is not an overwhelmingly positive trait in him). The point is, I have never, in the 15 plus years that I have written fan fiction, written the perfect character, so in writing this story, I am not trying to make fun of other authors and their works, but I am simply poking fun of this concept of the perfect girl, noted by some as being called 'Mary Sues'._

_The next story I am working on is actually a 180 degree turn from this one, heavy on the drama, light on the romance. But, enough gabbing about that one, on with this story. I hope you enjoy this latest chapter, and please let me know what you think._

_

* * *

_**Part 7**

Wow, they were lighter than I thought, Mary Sue thought as she stared skyward with a smirk covering her lips. Smacking her gum, she started back in the direction of where Aslan and the three girls were waiting for her. What do you expect from such fluff heads as those two? She asked herself smiling impishly as she reached the lion and offered him a salute. "The pink fluffs have been shot third class on a one way mission to the moon," she said with a loud snicker, but that faded when she noticed that Aslan looking at her, his eyes somewhat stern and it became obvious to her that he did not completely approve of her light-hearted take of the situation.

"What did you do with them?" He asked.

"Only what you asked, Your Majesty, I got rid of them, it was my first homer ever, they flew straight to the stars," she snorted but looked at the two girls and noticed that like Donna, since getting a taste of the honey-dew, they had gotten over their strange appearances and were looking like normal people again.

She watched as the girl who had been molting, was wiping her hands down her clothing and looking somewhat confused. Although she and her friend both looked considerably better, Mary Sue wondered for a fleeting instant what would have happened had the last two girls actually returned to Aslan with her freely and been given their drops of the honey-dew. Oh well, no great loss, she thought smugly and continued to take in the new appearances of the two girls.

The first one was dressed in similar clothing as Donna, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Appearance wise, she had freckles that extended across the bridge of her nose and brown eyes. Her long brown hair was tied back in a casual ponytail and she had dangling silver stars hanging from her earlobes. The girl who had hit her head against the tree branch was wearing a corduroy jacket over a blouse and matching pants. She was still on the ground, but was starting to come around. She ran her hand through her naturally curly auburn hair and shook her head. "What happened?" She managed as she looked up and recognized Mary Beth standing over her.

"You nearly gave yourself a concussion, Alice," Mary Beth said. "But, at least you're back to normal."

Alice looked at Mary Beth with horror shadowing her face. "Oh my God, what have I done?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself, you only did what the others did, and based on my scientific findings, you have basically allowed some disgusting sweets to help you do it," Mary Beth explained. "That is, you ate that stuff that that boy gave you and it started to control what you did and you ended up here because Mary Sue has the honey-dew. Do you remember anything about the person who gave it to you?"

"I only remember that it was a boy, and I think he went to our school," Alice said as she rubbed the bump that was on her forehead.

"I remember," the molting girl said (her name was Christie, by the way). "He came to the school and said that we could be anyone we wanted to be. It was sort of the concept that they used in that old movie 'The Nutty Professor'."

"Oh I love that film," Mary Beth said smiling. "Jerry Lewis totally rocks in it."

Mary Sue looked at the girls. "Time out," she held up her hands in negation. "Look, before we head for Cair Paravel, I think it would be wise for us to dispense with using terms like 'so and so rocks' or 'so and so is hot' or anything that could indicate that you guys have gone into a relapse, OK?"

Mary Beth nodded. "I agree," she smiled. "But he really was good in that film."

"Yes, but that must be what this boy has copied and then managed to lead them into Narnia. The girls want nothing more than to be perfect, and this so called 'find' could make them into this perceived notion of perfection. They don't care about the ins and outs of it, and they don't care if they are controlled or turned into the worst possible reflection of themselves. The fact remains that they were changed by all of this." She looked at Aslan. "A hundred to one that whoever the mastermind behind all of this is, that he is some lonely, unhappy boy who had never had a date in his life."

"You think that is what it means?" Aslan asked.

"What else could it mean? Someone is obviously angry because their dance card only has their mother's name on it," Mary Sue said with a smirk.

"That's kind of mean, though," Alice said. "Not everyone is perfect."

"No, but someone was trying to create something that was perfect," Mary Beth countered. "Make some bits of fluff with no brains, then they can get whatever they want out of them, but what I don't understand is why would they all be sent to Narnia?"

Aslan looked at the girls. "I think it would be wise for all of you to go to the burrow and inform the beavers and Tumnus about what has happened. I must be off to Cair Paravel."

Mary Sue nodded and led the group of girls over to the entrance to the burrow and everyone squeezed their way inside.

"What has happened?" Mr. Beaver asked when he saw that there were three more occupants in the burrow. "This is almost too small a place for so many, and I am starting to feel rather like a sardine."

"Don't make me hungry, Mr. Beaver," Tumnus said. "You know sardines are my favorite."

Mary Sue smiled, but looked at the group assembled. "Aslan told us to come back here. This is Mary Beth, she's sort of got the inside track on things and has been helping Aslan, Alice and…I didn't catch your name."

"I didn't throw it," the girl said smiling. "It's Christie."

"Apparently, all of these girls go to the very same school and have been put under some sort of mind-control by one of the boys there," Mary Sue explained to the three Narnians. "I'm finding out more and more information from them about what happened, but we still don't know how or why the boy led them into Narnia in the first place, and we probably won't know until he crawls out from under his perspective rock and enlightens us."

"Why would he do such a horrible thing?" Mrs. Beaver asked softly.

"It could be a number of reasons," Mary Beth supplied, all the while adjusting her glasses. "He could have been angry because no one wanted to go out with him, he could have a sick sense of humor, or he could be playing on the fantasies of the girls involved. Whatever the rationale behind it, nothing explains how or why Narnia has been invaded."

"So that means we're pretty much back to square one," Mary Sue said.

"Not necessarily," Donna piped up, thus breaking her prolonged silence. "Who is the boy who is most likely to try and pull of this sort of stunt? I mean; the person who did this would obviously have to have some sort of chemistry knowledge or background in science."

"The only one I know of who could have done what you describe is Dudley Richards, he's the smartest boy in our class," Mary Beth supplied. "He's even better in Chemistry than I am, which is saying a lot, because I have perfect marks in that class, but he also stays after school every single day to work in the Chemistry lab."

"Yeah, but he's shy and almost a recluse," Alice said. "If he did this then it still doesn't explain why."

"No, but if this guy's a zero in the dating department, then imagine how a bunch of pink fluffies would react to him, they'd be putty in his hands. I mean; think about it, a guy who is really interested in science and having no idea about dating, and he finds a formula that can make girls into man-hungry beasts, then he will think that these girls will swoon over any guy, it doesn't matter who he is, just as long as he's a guy. So, basically what is happening here is that he thinks if he can manipulate things in the right way, then these girls will fall head over heels in love with him."

"Yes, but why would he bring them to Narnia to do all of this?" Mr. Beaver asked.

"I think now I know why," Mary Sue snapped her fingers. "If he can get all of them into Narnia, then the ensuing chaos would not be recognized in our world, that is, what he did will go unnoticed, completely there. He kidnaps these girls and brings them here, then no time in our world will lapse between the time that he brings them here and the time they return. That is, he could keep them for years in Narnia all the while under his control. This will work in his favor as long as he keeps them well endowed with Turkish Delight. The point is, the time here works differently, so while years may pass in Narnia, then absolutely no time in our world will have gone by. If these girls go home and say they were kidnapped by a mad scientist, then no one in their right mind is going to believe them because no time had passed there."

"Well, obviously, he hasn't cross paths with Aslan yet," Tumnus said.

"True enough," Mary Sue nodded. "I think the best thing for us to do is to get this information to Cair Paravel, we have to let King Peter and King Edmund know what is happening and get them out of sight so we can fight against the menace. This is going to be a battle that level-minded girls are going to have to fight, no boys should be present, they could be in mortal danger. This time, the roles have been reversed and we get to play the saviors of Narnia." She smiled brightly as she rammed her fist against the flat palm of her hand. "This is so cool."

"You think this is cool?" Alice asked.

"Of course, who wouldn't?" Mary Sue asked. "Isn't that why you wanted to come to Narnia in the first place? For high adventure?"

"Yeah," Alice nodded. "I guess I did."

Mary Sue smiled. "This is gonna be great. So, if any of you know anything else about this Dudley Richards person, then you should tell me. After all, the more we know, the better equipped we will be to fight against his army."

"Do you think we can find out how he managed to get the girls into Narnia?" Mrs. Beaver asked. "Usually, if Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve come here, then it is through Aslan."

"Aslan wouldn't have brought them here," Mary Sue affirmed. "He brought me here to help lead up a revolt against this menace, but I honestly don't believe for a second that he would allow all of this to happen. He cares far too much for Narnia, and he said that he needed my help. I do remember from reading the books that various children did get into Narnia by using other forms of magic, and my guess is that this Dudley person found a portal somewhere that would bring them here. The question is, what sort of portal is it, and if we can cure them, will we be able to send them back in the same way?"

Mary Beth looked at the beavers. "I think we should make preparations to leave this place. Something tells me we're no longer safe here."

"This is a private beaver hideout," Mr. Beaver said.

"Yes, I know, but something suddenly doesn't feel right, we should be making preparations to leave this place tonight," she said and looked at Mary Sue. "What do you think?"

"I think you're right, I've had this creepy feeling since we got here," Mary Sue said and looked at the beavers. "Do some of these caverns lead out of here?"

"Yes," Mr. Beaver said, "but unfortunately they lead back to our dam and not to the Stone Table or Cair Paravel."

"Then I think we should leave and head in that direction by foot," Mary Sue said. "I just can't shake that something suddenly doesn't feel right here. I have to admit, I only feel one hundred percent safe when Aslan's around, and facing five is one thing, but small numbers generally get crushed when facing big numbers and I'm not overtly fond of these statistics right now."

"Agreed," the others said and the beavers began to pack their supplies. Mary Beth looked at the group of girls at that moment.

"Go and collect all the baskets you can find, but don't touch the Turkish Delight," she instructed. "If the pinks find them, then they will only add the sweets to their baskets and prolong the effect. Make sure that you have every last crumb of that poison out of their reach."

"Good plan, Mary Beth," Mary Sue said and they finished packing.


	8. Chapter 8

_Before you read this, I have to say that I have shifted gears on this story somewhat. I hope that it will be OK for you parody lovers out there. I simply feel that even though there are a couple of tongue in cheek gags here, that the coming chapters touch on the how's and why's of people's motivation to do something careless like what Dudley is doing in the story. I do have a few surprises in store for this story, though._

_But for now you will find out where those two girls ended up. Please read and review. _

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**Part 8 **

The two girls that Mary Sue had hit with the tree branch ultimately landed in a crop of bushes not too far away from Lantern Waste. Their pink dresses were now wrinkled and their hair tousled. They quickly stood up and looked around, their gazes coming to rest on a boy who was standing several feet away, his arms crossed over his chest and his green eyes filled with contempt as he regarded them. He rubbed his hand across his face and adjusted the tie that he wore over a white button down the front shirt. His jeans dragged somewhat against the ground, their edges frayed somewhat and a matching lab coat with flecks of chemicals completed his look. He adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses as he regarded the two girls, but eventually approached them.

"What happened?" He demanded, his gaze never faltering.

"Oh Dudley, it was terrible," the first girl began to whine.

"There's another girl here," the second of the pinks said. "She's joined forces with Tumnus and the beavers and we haven't been able to give her any of your wonderful Turkish delight." Unlike the manner she spoke when talking to the other male inhabitants of Narnia, the girl managed to speak somewhat comprehensibly. Neither of them was swooning and crooning with him, instead, they bowed their heads respectfully, as though they were his slaves and under his control.

"Where did she come from and where are the other three girls you were with?" He demanded.

"The other girls in our group are gone, and the stranger is someone we've never seen before. All we know is that we think they were staying in a burrow between here and the Stone Table; we had spied on them before we managed to confront them. We couldn't stop them though, but we think they may still be there," the girl said in a normal tone of voice.

"What else happened?" Dudley asked, but when the girls said nothing, he grabbed one of them by the scruff of the frilly pink dress and pulled her towards him, his eyes staring mockingly down into her eyes. "Tell me or I will lose my patience."

"OK, the other girls were changed back," the second girl, said once she had recovered from crying and was able to look at him. "I saw it happen, but I saw that one was a traitor, she was dressed in pink, but it was only a disguise."

Dudley took a deep breath. This was not what he expected to hear, and he eventually released the girl he had held. At the same time, he didn't have to ask the name of the girl to know who she was. It had to have been Mary Beth Stevenson, she was, after all, his biggest rival in the Chemistry lab and she posed the potential to ruin all his plans. I will have the last laugh on all of them, Mary Beth as well as those snobs who had worked so hard to make his life miserable. Now the tables would turn, and he would get back at every girl who had ever gone out of their way to make him into some sort of joke.

He looked back over at the two girls, but produced a specially wrapped piece of Turkish delight from his lab coat and clenched it tightly in his fist. "I want you to gather the girls together and we will have a little meeting before you undertake the next part of my plan."

The girls nodded obediently and scurried off, thus leaving him alone. I have them under my control, he thought as a sadistic smile spread across his face. I'm the only boy that those idiotic girls can speak normally with. With the rest of the male species, they act like they are possessed and will swoon and croon over them at any given moment. This will in turn, drive the other boys insane. As his thoughts continued, he began to chuckle from deep within the recesses of his throat. I will show them all.

He ran his hand down over the lab coat and began to walk with slow and methodical steps towards a meadow where the girls had assembled. Upon seeing him, they immediately went quiet and he smiled. "I have a task for all of you. Apparently, a spy has infiltrated the borders of Narnia, and must be stopped before she reaches Cair Paravel. It looks as though that is where she is heading. This group poses a very real danger to us as well as our way of life. Therefore, I have decided that in order for you all to stay perfect as you are, then you must eat even more Turkish delight, and I shall distribute some pieces with an even higher potency. That means, if you are to meet this girl again, then you must all be armed with these particular sweets," he commanded. "Through doing this, you shall have your revenge on the girl who hit two of our supporters with a tree branch. I will not take things lightly, if you fail."

"We hear and obey, Dudley, you are, after all the smartest in all of Narnia," a group of girls chimed.

He smiled and nodded, but continued to speak. "Don't let me down," he said, his eyes menacing and the scowl still covering his lips as the girls began to distribute the Turkish delight among themselves.

Once they had completed the task, the army of girls started in the direction of the Stone Table and Dudley retreated to a small cave and watched until they had disappeared in the distance. This would prove to be easier than he ever anticipated, he thought as a sly smile spread across his face. This plan was working out far better than he anticipated, and with the new Turkish delight, he could keep the girls under his control for an even longer period of time.

Of course, the potency of the substance had not been tested, but at this point he simply did not care what would happen to them. If the girl was to blow up like that initial test had had made, then so what? It would be one less girl who would turn him down for a date left in the universe.

Bringing this giggly crew to Narnia had been a stroke of genius on his part. He didn't realize that the place he had stepped into was Narnia until he saw the lamppost cropped up in the middle of the wood.

He had always been a fantasy fan; his biggest hobby was role-playing with friends he had met through the Internet. His social life was next to none; the most exciting part of the year was the annual science fiction convention, which would take place in his town. But alas, the boy was the loneliest creature in this, or any world; the girls all laughed at him, they treated him like he was a nothing and his overall outlook was dismal.

He rubbed his hands together. How he had longed to get back at all these horrible things that the girls at school had done to him. They had used him to help up their grades in Chemistry, resorting to cheating on tests and copying his homework. He took a deep breath, I'm not a bad person, he often tried to convince himself, but enough was enough. All these girls ever did was hurt people who were different then they were. He was in the right for wanting to have revenge on them. Most people tried later on in life to do something to that effect to those who tormented them as children.

He looked down at the scars that were wound around his ankles. This would be a constant reminder to him of how the other kids at his school had gone too far. The bullies from the football team had pulled a terrible prank on him, and the girls from the cheerleading squad had helped by taking part. It seemed like yesterday when they had trapped him in a corner and left him hanging from a tree by his ankles and looking out and seeing the faces of these, so called, perfect kids laughing at him as though he was a nothing. Now, it would serve them right for the torture they had gone and subjected him to. Let everyone in the world of Narnia laugh at them, it would serve them right.

His classmates were considered perfect in every way, but Dudley knew that they were not. Yet, they never had to worry about going dateless to dances, or being humiliated in the gym locker room. They had it all; they had no problems and no enemies except for kids like him who were tormented for being outsiders.

Yet, it was here in Narnia, where they would be the ones despised. The Narnians would hate them with a passion for what they had done to their home, and Dudley would watch them do it. The final stage of his plan was so easy, he would allow them to slowly and painfully return to what they used to be and watch as Aslan himself shoved them out of Narnia.

He had never met the great lion, and he almost feared what would happen if that were to happen, but one things was clear to him; in this place, he had the power over them, and no one would be able to stop him until his revenge against these girls had been completely realized.

He looked around the cave where he had hidden his stockpiles of Turkish delight, and smiled as the realization hit him. These had not been chemically altered in any way, and the girls would discover this the next time they returned to him to fill their baskets, they would be given the regular sweets and they would molt out of their Mary Sue guises right in the middle of a battlefield. This time the joke would be on all of them, and the boys whom they swooned over, King Edmund and King Peter would see it happen right before their very eyes.

Perhaps I've been playing too many rounds of Dungeons and Dragons, Dudley thought to himself, but the very idea of this happening in front of all of Narnia was too priceless to be real. This would serve them with the ultimate humiliation, and if Aslan was there, then all the better.

I can hardly wait, he thought as he chuckled under his breath. Everyone is expecting a huge battle, but they are going to be sorely disappointed.

First things first, however, the revenge on the girl who was trying to stop his fun would be carried out, and that would happen as soon as his army of pinks had found them and had managed to stop them from warning the inhabitants of Cair Paravel of what was to come.

He smiled as he looked around the cave. When this charade is over, then I never want to see another piece of Turkish delight as long as I live.

Little did Dudley Richards know that as he sat smugly in his cave surrounded by sweets that two girls with very similar problems and questions were making their way to Cair Paravel in order to put a stop to his influence over the whole of Narnia.


	9. Chapter 9

_I know it's been several days since I have given a new installment on this, but I have to go where the inspiration directs me, thus the other story I have written, which was a major shifting of gears. At any rate, as a writer, I cannot force myself to write on something if the motivation isn't present. Now, I'm back in the saddle, so to speak, and hopefully I can get going again on this story and hopefully you'll enjoy this latest installment._

_As always, your reviews are greatly appreciated and I'll try to get the story updated in a timely manner._

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**Part 9**

It was close to ten Narnian time when they left the burrow for the last time. The beavers were leading the way, the girls in the middle and Tumnus and Mary Sue bringing up the rear.

"Your intuition had been right," Tumnus remarked as they came out of the area and had turned around to see a group of pink-clad girls running towards the abandoned shelter. "Mary Beth seemed to have felt the exact same way you did."

"Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?" Mary Sue said, but after several minutes passed, she looked over at him. "Mr. Tumnus can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can, is this a serious question?" He asked, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Yeah, I guess it sort of is, I can't be funny all the time," she shrugged her shoulders. "Do you think I can do this? I mean; face these girls and save Narnia?"

"Perhaps you cannot do it alone, as you thought when we first met, but with a group or a team of sorts, I believe you can," he said. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, what?"

"Is your thing called baseball done alone?" He asked.

"No, it's a team sport, I play on a girls' team in school, but it's more fun playing with the neighborhood boys, they play hard ball, not softball," she shrugged her shoulders. "It's one of those things that make me weird, at least in the eyes of the other girls."

"In a team game, you work together to attain a common goal," he said. "Aslan brought you to Narnia probably with the intention of you forming such a team. You are a leader, Mary Sue, you have shown this when you figured out what was happening here and started to act on it. Don't ever doubt that."

"But what if it doesn't work?" She asked.

"Who says it won't?" He shot back. "You weren't sure at the start what was going to happen, and yet you wanted an adventure, now you're in the middle of one. And you're still not happy?"

"No, to tell you the truth, I'm scared. I don't know if I can do what Aslan wants me to do, and worse still, I don't know what he is going to expect from me once we reach Cair Paravel," Mary Sue shook her head. "I mean; don't get me wrong, I'm not worried so much about going into battle. After all, I've had more bloody noses in my day than I care to count, but what scares me is failing. I'm afraid that we're going to lose Narnia and in the process; I'll be letting you, the beavers, and all the others down. One doesn't have to be tough all the time or knock pink-fluffies into the next world to realize that I have moments where I doubt my abilities. There's a lot of stuff that I still have to do, and every time we pass a tree with the name 'King Peter is mine' or 'Aslan is the cat's meow', then I start to worry. These things won't ever be the same again. I mean; once someone carves a name into a tree, then that tree will forever be a reminder of what it once was."

"You're thinking about the lamppost as well, aren't you?" He asked.

"I'm thinking about everything that has been wrecked by these girls," she shook her head. "Even if we win, and drive them out of Narnia for good, then the things that were destroyed won't be what they once were. We cannot change them back, it's not so easy as giving a beaver a bath."

"Well, don't let Mr. Beaver hear you say that, because from what I hear, giving him a bath is not a task anyone here would wish to undertake; not even Mrs. Beaver is overly fond of it," Tumnus said cracking a smile.

Mary Sue nodded. "Yes, but no matter what I find out, or what we do, there is going to be an impact left on Narnia by all of this."

The faun stopped walking and turned to face her. "I could see that when we were at the Beavers' dam earlier. I could tell that you were considering this. You said basically that you really care about Narnia, and I could see it, and if the beavers hadn't been taking care of Mr. Beaver's situation, then they would have seen it too. But, do you know what, Mary Sue?"

"What?"

"Love can be positive, it's not about romance or even falling in love. These girls have the wrong idea about it, they think that coloring everything pink is going to show a sign of their appreciation for another, but what it is doing is creating problems for this world. Aslan is the most loving thing in Narnia, and he created this world because he loves it." He started walking again and she fell in step beside him.

"I guess I have always had a weird feeling about 'love'," she admitted.

"You thought that love meant romance, and that's really not your thing," Tumnus said.

"I'm not normal, not like the other girls, two people here have already mistook me for a boy since I got here," she shook her head.

"Good heavens, Daughter of Eve, I didn't, and Aslan didn't when he sent for you out of your world. You were just what Narnia needed; a bold and daring presence here amidst the chaos," he said firmly.

"But I'm different," Mary Sue began, her words causing Mary Beth stop and turn around.

"Aren't we all?" The girl said arching her eyebrows. Instead of turning back and joining her classmates she waited for Mary Sue and Tumnus to catch up with her. Once they did, she started to speak. "Do you think that you're the only one with problems? Everyone back home thinks I'm a geek just because I'm a girl, I like science, and my hero is Albert Einstein. When Aslan called me to Narnia to fulfill this quest, I thought this was the coolest thing in the world because he wanted me. Not Buffy the popular cheerleader person, but me, Mary Beth Stevenson, a person who could blab out the periodic table, but couldn't tell you what color makeup would be best for her bone structure. He told me his plan and I thought it was so great; I could still be myself and go undercover. It would be the boldest thing I had ever done in my life. What gave me courage was that he believed in me, even though he had to ask me three times what I meant when I started talking about the use of chemical compounds and what specifically a test-tube rack was." She shrugged her shoulders. "The day I agreed to help him, he told me that the other person who I was to follow would be different too."

"Me?" Mary Sue asked.

"Yes, you," Mary Beth responded.

"But I don't know anything about science, I am into baseball and fencing, and all these things that boys like to do that girls are turned off by," Mary Sue said shrugging her shoulders.

"We're different, but do you know what?" Mary Beth asked and Mary Sue shook her head. "There is no one in Narnia that could have given Alice, Donna, and Christie the honey-dew except for you. Aslan knew that, it was for that reason that he needed someone other than boy crazy girls to take on this task. He wanted to have someone who would not be affected by these girls or their Turkish delight."

"How did you manage to pull it off?" Mary Sue asked.

"That part was easy, I made them think that I was eating Turkish delight, too and was simply tagging along with them. Aslan told me to keep it under wraps until you came. He said you would take the cordial with the honey-dew and from that, I would know it was time for me to take off the frills and join you."

"They all thought you were one of them, even I did? When you pulled that wig off, I thought I was gonna die," Mary Sue admitted.

"I know," Mary Beth snickered. "Your eyes looked the size of saucers. Before Aslan showed up, I knew I couldn't afford to blow my cover, so I just sort of watched them and mimicked them. It was much harder to act like a brainless twit than I could have imagined, but Aslan was patient, and thankfully so."

Mary Sue looked at Tumnus and then looked at Mary Beth. "If you had carried out all this, where do I fit in?"

"If you haven't figured this out yet, I was the one who developed the honey-dew remedy for Aslan. I was totally floored when he came to me at the Chem. Lab one afternoon and asked me to work on an antidote. It seemed as though he already knew what was coming, and wanted to be prepared for it. Anyway, it was totally weird seeing a lion squeezed inside the room and managing to move about without knocking over experiments or breaking something. At any rate, he was there and said that he needed my help, that Narnia needed my help," she paused and giggled. "I guess getting his huge paws around a slender test tube would have been like giving a kindergartener a 1000 piece puzzle and telling them to put it together."

Mary Sue smiled. "My little sister loves puzzles, but she's only up to those with 140 pieces."

"That's just it, Aslan couldn't have done it himself, so he went to someone who could; me," Mary Beth smiled brightly at them. "I had been working with food additives for a while and spent weeks trying to perfect these experiments. Instead of working at school, he advised me to do the work at home, so I did. I retreated to the basement at home and all my free time I spent working on this project. I didn't say a word to anyone about getting this task from a lion; they'd have thought I was totally crazy. I just worked on it and the day I finished it, I went to the school and I saw Dudley Richards in the lab working with what appeared to be Turkish delight and his own set of experiments. I was so mad at him, I mean; I honestly thought that he was trying to copy my work. I mean; I knew that he was better at Chemistry than me, so I got to thinking that maybe Aslan had asked the wrong person to help him with this. It was on that day that I made the ultimate discovery."

"What did you discover?" Tumnus asked.

"I found out where the portal into Narnia was," Mary Beth said in a hushed whisper as she looked around the area where they were walking to make sure they could not be overheard.

"Where is it?" Mary Sue asked in the same hushed tone. "And why didn't you say something about it earlier?"

"I couldn't, because of a promise I made. Aslan said that I could tell you, but none of the other girls should know about it yet. I guess he fears that they would run straight home and not look back, and I'm betting that some would. You know what they say, the only battles they would be taking part in is the 'battle of the bulge'," Mary Beth explained.

"So where is this portal?" Tumnus asked curiously.

"Our Chemistry classroom is rather large room with windows on one side, and on the other, wooden cabinets line the wall. That's where the chemicals are stored. At the very back of the room there's one wooden cabinet; it looks differently than all the others. The wood paneling that covers the door is dark brown in color, as is the rest of the cabinet. It looks more or less antique and out of place, especially when you compare it to the rest of the cabinets, which are white with clear glass doors. Anyway, in order to open this brown cabinet door, you'd have to have the key, and the teacher had a large silver key that hung from the belt-loop of his pants and he would use it to access the cabinet. My guess is that Dudley had somehow managed to copy the key."

"Yeah, but aren't there rules about kids using the labs after school hours? At my school, that would never have happened," Mary Sue said.

"True, and unless the teachers know what we are doing after school, then we should not be in that classroom after the final bell. Well, Dudley is the top Chemistry student at our school, so I suppose the teachers let him in and gave him access to do what he wanted."

"They sound like total morons," Mary Sue muttered.

"Yeah, but everyone there knew that, Dudley could convince a leopard to change its spots if he had to. My guess is that he managed to do all of that with the teachers backing him and then used it on these girls," Mary Beth explained.

"So you have proof that he's the one responsible?" Mary Sue asked.

"Well, it's not totally been proven, but the day everything started happening, I came into the lab and watched unobserved while he was doing his very last experiments on some pieces of Turkish delight. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I suddenly saw one of the pieces turn pink and blow up. I continued to watch as he tried adding a component to another piece and it turned pink, then faded back to the rightful color. He shouted 'eureka!', which is something we scientists sometimes shout when experiments work. Then he pulled out a huge bag with even more of the sweets and added something to them. It was then that he looked up and saw me watching him and he offered me a piece. I declined, of course, because I'm not stupid enough to eat in a Chemistry Lab."

"What happened next?" Mary Sue asked.

Mary Beth shrugged her shoulders. "He smiled at me and said something about going and passing his sweets around and that maybe it would ensure him a date, and that was it. Stupidly, he left the key to the cabinet on the desk and I picked it up. I don't know why I did this, but I walked over to the cabinet and opened it. Instead of seeing chemicals and things inside the cabinet, the door opened to reveal a beautiful meadow."

"Wow, cool, so that was the portal?" Mary Sue asked.

"Yeah, and when I stepped through it, Aslan was there waiting for me," she said. "He asked me if I had finished my formula and I said yes and gave it to him. He then instructed me to not say a word about the portal to anyone except for the person who will next hold this vial of honey-dew. I promised him this and he sent me back. The next time I came into Narnia, I was on the mission assigned to me."

"How did you manage if you declined taking a piece of the Turkish delight in the first place?" Mary Sue asked.

"I described it as peer pressure, it was also a way to test the honey-dew and make sure it worked. I didn't just make you a bottle, I made me one as well," Mary Beth pulled a small bottle from her lab coat and smiled. "So after I tried it, I turned pink, but then before I lost myself in all of it, I took two drops of the substance and turned back. Aslan helped with my disguise, so to them I had gone pink, but to anyone that really mattered, as well as to myself, I was still Mary Beth, and managed to keep my cover."

"How did you manage to keep them from getting suspicious about the Turkish delight?" Tumnus asked.

"I met Aslan the first night I was back in Narnia and he gave me some safe Turkish delight. Through that, I could keep my disguise and the others would be none the wiser. The problem is, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't give anyone some of the honey-dew because they were all living on Turkish delight, so it would have been out of character to do so." She shrugged her shoulders. "For the first time in my life, I felt as though I had stepped into a cross between a James Bond spy thriller and the Candy Land board game."

"That's wild, but it explains why Aslan described you as a hero of Narnia," Mary Sue said. "Having you on our side is definitely a good thing."

"Thanks," Mary Beth said, but looked at them both earnestly. "You must both promise me that you will not say anything to the others about any of this."

"We won't," Tumnus affirmed. "Right Mary Sue?"

The teenager extended her hand to Mary Beth and sealed their agreement. "I promise," was all she said and the three of them quickened their steps in order to catch up with the others.

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A/n My husband just happens to be a PhD Chemist, and this was such a fun chapter for me to write, especially the 'eureka' part. I know scientists don't talk like this, because never in over 10 years of marriage has he said this, but he thought it was cute, so I left it in the story. 


	10. Chapter 10

_a/n: Reviews will determine if I post future stories in this forum at all. I know that sounds like a real dull deal, but these stories take time to write, and I really would like to know what people think of the work I put into them. If no one says anything about it, then I get the impression that I could be doing something like making dental appointments as opposed to writing. So please indulge me and let me know what you think. OK?_

_Thank you kindly._

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_**Part 10**

They traveled through the night, only taking breaks to have a light snack, and as the first lights of dawn began to light up the distant sky, they had reached the Stone Table, and Mary Sue was sighing with relief. Of course, she was tired, but she was too hungry to be tired, and too nervous to be hungry. So even when Mrs. Beaver had given her a piece of bread with jam, she barely even gave it a nibble.

Her thoughts were still on the task that Aslan would be asking of her to fulfill once they had reached Cair Paravel. Her conversation with Mary Beth and Tumnus the night before was still weighing heavily on her mind and although she did not make any mention of it, she really was not sure about how successful she would be. She still pondered whether or not she was even the right person to take on such a huge task.

As they reached the table, Mary Sue got caught up in the moment, as she had read in the books, the large table was cracked down the middle and the two pieces were caved in on either side. She extended her hand and ran it slowly along the surface of it as her thoughts immediately shifted to Aslan.

"At least they didn't cover this with pink confetti and ribbons," she mused as she continued to run her hand along the rocky surface. Eventually, she looked at the beavers. "Could you imagine something as special as this being destroyed by girls who aren't in their right minds?"

Both beavers shook their heads, but Mr. Beaver was the one who spoke. "No, I could not, but this doesn't mean that the table is going to be safe. Once we leave here, they could descend upon it and destroy it as well."

"Yeah, I know," Mary Sue nodded. "They were coming into the burrow last night after we had left it, so Mary Beth had been right about it feeling weird, I felt the very same thing, even though I didn't mention it."

"You saw them?" He asked.

"How could I have missed them? They looked like giant pink cotton-balls. And if I couldn't see them, then I could definitely hear their hen-like cackling from twenty feet away, not to mention I could smell them. They were anything but undetectable, I mean; pink in the forest doesn't make for good camouflage at all." She snickered at the thought, but quickly they all grew silent when they heard a light rustling of branches nearby.

As if on command, the entire group grew silent and any words she could have spoken, immediately died on Mary Sue's lips. She stared in the direction of where she had heard the sounds and suddenly, she spotted some pink colored lace in between the bushes and a ruby red colored fingernail extending out from it and pointing right where she stood. She froze when she heard a childish sounding whine emerging, thus breaking the silence.

"That's her," a girl squeaked and Mary Sue swallowed as a group of pinks emerged from behind the trees and bushes, their numbers nearly twenty and growing. Not fully knowing what to do, she found herself trapped between them and the Stone Table. The only thing she could have done, she did, she backed up and found herself wedged between the two sides of the Stone Table.

When the girls came even closer, she discovered that she was trapped between them and the table. Without thinking twice about what she was doing, she began to climb up on top of it in order to distance herself from them.

By this time the sheer numbers of them had grown from twenty to just over thirty, all of them dressed in pink and carrying baskets filled with Turkish delight. Within seconds, the group had completely surrounded the Stone Table and sixty matching blue eyes were all leering up at her, their gazes filled with contempt as they regarded their victim trapped on the table.

"Run away," she shouted to her friends and watched as Tumnus and the beavers started to push the healthy girls away from the table and conceal themselves some distance away. Mary Beth watched as Mary Sue tried to climb even higher on one side of the cracked table, but soon lost her footing, slipped, and fell with a thud between the crack of the table. As she tried to scramble back to the place where she had climbed, she noticed that the girls had come even closer, and one of them gripped her arm, the ruby red fingernails piercing the skin and Mary Sue bit her lower lip to keep the tears of pain at bay.

It was at this moment that Mary Sue had to accept the horrible truth, she was trapped and the only other person who could help her was Mary Beth. "Run," she shouted to the other girl.

Mary Beth, instead of doing as she was told, remained where she was and watched stoically as the one of the girls pulled a piece of Turkish delight from her basket and wedged the sweet closer to her captive.

"I hear your name is Mary Sue, this should go over really well with you," the high-pitched squeal of the girl emerged and she got right up in Mary Sue's face. "I also heard that you hurt two of our friends earlier. That was so un-cool."

Mary Sue said nothing; she simply backed further away from the girl and kept her lips tightly pursed together. She did not dare say a word for fear that she would be forced to take a bite of the treacherous cake.

The girl continued to laugh. "You can't get away from us," the girl laughed as another voice emerged, this one from Mary Beth who had been watching this scene play out and had clearly had enough.

"You are a bunch of fluffy cowards," the girl shouted. "You know that there is power in numbers, and use that to your advantage. Just like in the school yard when you pick on kids who are different than you." Mary Beth suddenly realized what this was like, and she shook her head. This same group of girls had done the very same thing to Dudley Richards on the grounds at school and had been egged on by the boys in the football team. "No wonder he's doing this," she whispered as understanding washed over her.

Somewhere in the recesses of her heart, she actually felt pity for the boy who had instigated all this trouble. She took a deep breath and continued to speak. "I know your game, even as yourselves, your true selves and minus the pink fluff, you are not all that much better."

"What are you talking about?" One of the girls asked.

"I'll tell you," Mary Beth shouted. "You're only tough when there are twenty or thirty of you, but if there is only one or two, you're pitiable cowards."

Mary Sue nodded. "Just like your two friends…" Her voice trailed off and she suddenly tasted the gooey sweetness of Turkish delight being stuffed into her mouth.

"Grab her," the girl shouted as two other girls grabbed Mary Sue's arms and she covered Mary Sue's mouth and nose with her hand and eventually the girl had no choice but to either swallow or be suffocated. Unwillingly, she swallowed, and the girl removed her hand. "She's powerless now," she shouted to the group and they cheered as they released her and backed away from the Stone Table.

Mary Sue sank to the ground once she had been released and tried with all her might to spit out the offending cake. When she couldn't, she closed her eyes as dizziness overwhelmed her and the last thing she remembered was Tumnus coming towards her as everything went black.

Loud whooping laughter could still be heard as the girls set to work to decorate the Stone Table, but they blocked their way between Mary Sue's body and where Mary Beth was standing. The young scientist stared at Mary Sue's unmoving body and shook her head. What started out as funny and silly had indeed turned tragic.

Time seemed to stand still for all of them, the beavers slowly inching towards where Mary Sue lay, but no one could fully reach her, so they simply waited until the girls had finished what they had started and ran off like a flock of pink lawn ornaments being blown through the air.

Mary Beth sighed as Tumnus, the beavers and the other girls came out from hiding and reached Mary Sue, who had, by this time, changed and was now wearing a pink dress and had a crop of blonde hair that hung down over either side of her face. "This isn't what we planned," Mary Beth whispered.

"No," Tumnus said softly as he rested his hand on her shoulder. "It is not. Mary Sue tried to take them on by herself, not knowing that she had support behind her."

"Yeah, but she wanted us to hide, she tried to protect us from them," Donna said and looked at Mary Beth. "Our teasing really hurt you, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Mary Beth said softly.

"But we didn't mean anything by it, it was just silliness," Christie said.

Mary Beth shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps, but it did. Just as they were doing this to her, I realized something else, something that every one had done at our school. We have to make things right, for Narnia, but also for Dudley."

"But he's the jerk that started this, it's his mad science that has made Mary Sue this way," Alice objected.

"But why did he do it? What actually motivated and pushed him to take such an extreme stand? We made fun of him, we made him out to be a geek, and now he probably thinks every girl is like them," Mary Beth said. "It doesn't condone what he did here, but it certainly sheds a new light on things. He's not so much different than Mary Sue or me, he just chose a different path to deal with it."

"Yeah, but Mary Beth, you wouldn't do anything like this," Donna rationalized.

"No, I wouldn't, but think I understand now what happened," she said as she looked down at Mary Sue. "She doesn't even go to our school, yet she has to suffer for the stupidity that takes place there."

"So in other words, you're basically saying that there is no difference between the pinks and what sort of girls these are in real life," Alice said.

Mary Beth nodded. "They are different than they are in real life, appearance wise, and perhaps the way they talk, but one thing is clear, they use the concept of power in numbers to make their point known." She went over to Mary Sue, who still lay unmoving on the ground, the girl's face now the reflection of what she most despised in the world. Mary Beth pulled out her cordial and opened it and poured two drops of the honey-dew in Mary Sue's mouth and waited.

After several moments had passed, Mary Sue opened her eyes and blinked a few times before looking around. "What happened?" She whispered.

"You got hit on the head," Mary Beth responded, "but I don't understand. Why do you still look this way?"

Mary Sue shook her head but after a few moments, she could feel that it was still throbbing and looked at Mary Beth "What do you mean, look this way? I look like I always look, don't I?" She looked up at the other girls, the beavers, and Tumnus.

It was the faun who sadly shook his head. "No, Mary Sue, you don't."

"He's right, dear," Mrs. Beaver responded gently. "You were forced to eat some Turkish delight, do you remember?"

"No, I don't remember anything, I just remember that I fell and hit my head," Mary Sue said as she looked down at her hands and then looked at her friends. "What has happened to me?" She asked her voice cracking. "Quick, someone give me some honey-dew."

"It won't help," Mary Beth said, "I already gave you some, but this must be an even more potent Turkish delight than the other stuff they had."

"You don't have romantic feelings towards anyone, do you, Mary Sue?" Tumnus asked and once she shook her head, a sigh of relief settled over the group. "So it seems as though you only look this way, and that is all that has happened."

"That is all?" She shouted. "I look like a stinking Barbie doll. This is a fate worse than death! Why didn't the honey-dew work?"

"I don't know," Mary Beth whispered. "Dudley must have come up with an even more powerful Turkish delight formula."

"Maybe that's the problem, now I've been changed, but the question is, will this be permanent, or will I ever change back, and if it is permanent will I start acting like they do?"

The others shook their heads, but Tumnus came over and put his arm around her shoulders and helped her to stand. "Not to worry, no matter what happens, we'll stand by you, and once we get to Cair Paravel, then I'm sure Aslan will restore you."

"Yeah, but if I start flirting with someone, no matter who it is, then hit me over the head with a rock and put me out of my misery," Mary Sue said with a sigh as she started down at her hands. "This is a nightmare! Oh Aslan, where are you, and why won't I change back to myself?"

When the majestic lion did not appear, Mary Sue looked down at the frilly pink dress that she was now wearing. "I've become a Mary Sue, not just in name, but also in appearance. I need Aslan to help me, and he's nowhere to be found." Her thoughts shifted and she looked at the stone table, now decorated with graffiti and ribbons and she sank down to her knees as she shook her head helplessly.

"Even knowing everything about why all this happened, I still don't know what to do," Mary Sue whispered. She looked down at herself, her eyes filled with sadness. "This isn't what I wanted."

"We all know that, dear," Mrs. Beaver said softly.

"I think we must move quickly in order to get to Cair Paravel. There Mary Sue can meet with Aslan and find out if there is a way to restore her appearance," Mr. Beaver said. "Just remember this, Mary Sue, no matter how you look externally, it is what lies inside that truly counts."

"True, true," the others agreed and they helped Mary Sue was once more get to her feet. Slowly, the group of friends silently left the Stone Table all the while Mary Sue had cast a quick glance back towards the stone structure and shook her head.

"There's a part of this that will be forever lost," she whispered.

"It will be restored," Tumnus affirmed. "Everything in Narnia that has been affected will be returned to the way it once was."

"Even your cave?" Mary Sue asked.

"Yes," the faun said and offered his arm to her and without hesitating, she accepted his arm. Perhaps it will be through all of this that Mary Sue will learn that the dependence on her friends is not a hindrance but rather an asset.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11**

By the time the girls had returned to the cave where Dudley was hiding, the sun was high in the sky. Unbeknownst to any of them, he had a large package of sweets that had been chemically unchanged. As usual, the girls were completely ignorant to what was about to happen to them, but the boy smiled brokenly as the first group of them approached where he was waiting, their eyes bright and cheerful as they regarded him.

"We did it, Dudleykins," one of them crooned.

"Yeah, Mary Sue didn't know what hit her," a second girl said.

"Mary Sue? Who's Mary Sue?" Dudley asked.

"That girl, at least we think she's a girl," the first girl said.

"I don't know," her friend nudged her and giggled. "She didn't look very feminine to me, she probably never had a boyfriend."

"Quiet!" Dudley shouted and the two girls suddenly silenced. They really didn't sound much different then the cackling bunch of hens at school. The only difference was they perceived themselves to be even more perfect then they already thought they were. I've created a bunch of monsters, like Dr. Frankenstein.

"What is it, Dudley?" A third girl asked.

"Who is Mary Sue?" He asked trying to keep his voice even.

"She's just some girl," came the response. "Can we have our Turkish delight now?"

The boy finally extended the packages to the girls and watched as they ran off. By the time all of the girls had their sweets, Dudley's mind was literally reeling. There was no Mary Sue at his school, at least none that he knew of.

"Cair Paravel is that way," he shouted over the girls who were still in the area and watched as they followed his instructions and left the area.

At this moment, there was something rather unconvincing in his speech, and his eyes closed momentarily as he looked around the area. All the trees in the area there were pink streamers, trees with names carved in them and decorated caves belonging to the various Narnians. His eyes filled with sadness as he started to walk in the direction he had instructed them to go.

Before long, he reached a dam. A beautifully tasteful dam, but the only reason the dam was still in good standing was because it was a place that the girls could not reach without falling. He stared at it for several moments, his eyes filled with sadness as his gaze returned to the nearby trees. He could start to see that Narnians were beginning to emerge from their homes. Everywhere, there were mystical creatures and talking beasts. He shook his head as he started to walk away from the dam, the accusing eyes following his every step.

They didn't hate the girls, he concluded when he kept seeing the gazes of the Narnians following his every move. They hate me for having caused this, he concluded, his thoughts filled with self-recrimination. I'm no hero; I'm a menace. He sat down on the ground and rested his elbows on his lap and bowed his head.

Instead of being a victim of a cruel schoolyard joke, Dudley Richards had become a culprit of something much bigger. The girls weren't any different in real life then they were under the control of the Turkish delight, the only thing that it did was make them like him, yet, at this moment, he did not like himself at all.

He raised his head and could see the accusing stares from the inhabitants of this strange land looking upon him as though he was nothing more than a two-bit traitor. They had seen him with the girls and it didn't take an expert in the field to figure this out, he concluded. Now, he knew beyond any doubt that his actions had hurt far more than a simple act of getting even.

Worse than that, the girl who had been forced to eat the Turkish delight could be dead for all he knew, as the sweets hadn't even been tested. He swallowed as he looked back down at the ground and rubbed his hands against his arms. Mary Sue wasn't who he intended on getting back at, in fact, he felt terribly that someone who had not taken part in making his life miserable in his own world was the one who ended up getting hurt because of this plan.

It was true; Dudley was now having second thoughts. He had put another person through what he himself had been through and that seemed so wrong to the boy.

Swallowing, he started to make his way back in the direction of Cair Paravel. Maybe he could help do something to rectify everything he had done. Maybe he could plead with Aslan to help him right the wrongs that he had done.

As his thoughts continued to race, he suddenly stopped when he saw a golden stream of light filling the area, coming at him from a distance, but the beam grew wider and wider, as though a spotlight and he felt himself compelled to follow it to the source of the light.

He started to walk in the direction of the light, all the while slowing his pace somewhat, but he continued to walk towards it.

There was truly no way of knowing what would transpire once he would reach the clearing where the light seemed to be coming from. When he finally did reach the end of a crop of trees, he gasped when he realized that what he was following would ultimately cause him to wet himself.

In the clearing stood Aslan, the majestic lion surrounded by his most noble assistants, the fox, a few fauns and a centaur, but what amazed him was that the light that surrounded him made the lion look all the more majestic, the breeze ruffling his mane, thus making it look like spun gold.

Swallowing the golf-ball sized lump that formed in his throat, the boy hesitantly approached his head bowed, and his hands stuffed in the pocket of his lab coat.

"Human child," the lion said, his voice a low growl, but the sounds of it seemed to literally shake the foundation of the entire area, and this caused the boy to look up, only briefly before looking back down at the toes of his shoes. "Do you realize what you have done?" Aslan continued, and waited for the boy to say something, instead he watched as Dudley sank to the ground, first he sank to his knees, then his body crumpled to the ground in fright. The boy lay there for several moments his body unmoving.

"No, my children, he's not to be planted," the noble lion smiled as three squirrels and several hedgehogs and raccoons approached his unmoving body. One of the skunks sniffed the boy's body, and finding the scent displeasing, he backed quickly away. Aslan came closer to where Dudley was lying on the ground, the lion not saying anything further, but he merely waited for the boy to come around.

After a few moments, the boy opened his eyes and raised his head before he recognized that Aslan was now standing over and looking down at him.

"Aslan?" Dudley stammered.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out," the centaur, who now stood next to Aslan, remarked, his voice gruff, but somewhere in his thoughts, he almost felt sorry for this troublemaker.

"Peace, Oreius," the lion said as his attention returned to Dudley. "Stand up human child," the lion commanded, but backed a few steps away so that Dudley could get to his feet.

With knees trembling, Dudley slowly managed to do as he had been told, his head lowered and he once more stuffed his hands in the pockets of his, now dirty, lab coat. His gaze darted from the lion to the centaur and back again, but his knees were literally knocking as he beheld the majestic lion, neither looking away nor making direct eye contact.

All the things that seemed to filter through Dudley's mind were that Aslan would be able to see exactly what had happened to him, and he felt too ashamed of himself to show the lion the extent of his vulnerability.

"What have you done to Narnia?" The lion began, his voice still sounding impatient, but there were also small traces of understanding in the voice. It was a voice that Dudley would never forget, not as long as he lived.

"I…" he stammered, his words still not coming and he shook his head.

"Narnia is nothing like it was before, it's pink and frilly, and it would seem that we have you to thank for that," the lion continued.

Dudley shook his head, but dug his hands deeper in the pockets of his coat.

"You haven't even the courage to address him, do you?" One of the fauns shouted, and Aslan glanced over at the group that had gathered.

"I want you all to leave us," Aslan commanded and within seconds the group dispersed, all except for Oreius who remained standing. "You too, General Oreius," Aslan said and offering a quick snort, the centaur left them.

Once they were alone, the lion looked down at the boy. "Why did you do this? I know it was you who found the portal into Narnia, and you led this troupe of girls into this country. Why did you do it?"

"It was easy," the boy offered. "They would have done everything I told them as long as I gave them the sweets that they wanted. I had them under my control."

"You were ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of false pride," Aslan said. "It is that sort of thing that makes good Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve do things such as this. You are not a bad child, Dudley Richards, but you are misguided by pride and desire for revenge."

"They are no different in real life then they are here," Dudley said softly. "They're the same, I tried to change them but I couldn't. The only thing the Turkish delight does is it makes their appearances change, but they are still the same as they were before."

"That's the secret of it?" Aslan asked.

"Yes, they are not any different at all," Dudley confessed.

"But Mary Sue is," the wise lion said. "Those girls forced her to eat some of this at the Stone Table and now, not even the antidote will change her back. She will arrive at Cair Paravel by nightfall with her friends, but I must be there when they arrive, and so will you."

"Me, but why me?" Dudley asked.

"Because it was your actions that brought all of this about. If the inhabitants of Narnia hate you, it's because you haven't acted in a manner to earn their love and respect. I'm giving you a choice, Dudley, you can become a hero and help rid Narnia of this pink menace, or you can be a coward and I will send you back home the way you came and you will never return to Narnia again. It is your choice."

"But the cabinet, I have the key," he said.

"Yes, I know, but I also know that your teacher's name is Digory Kirke," the lion said, and took a deep breath before continuing. "I will not ask him to destroy the cabinet, because that would be asking far too much from him, but I do know that if I asked him to move it out of your school and thus, out of your reach, then he would do it. I will trust that once you return home, that you will not ever try to get into Narnia again, and you will certainly not instigate what has happened." He paused and waited for his words to stick in.

Dudley thought for a moment and then looked at the lion. "Aslan, if I help you will I ever be able to come back to Narnia?"

"This isn't about seeking rewards, Son of Adam, this is about doing what is right, and trying to make right the wrongs you have done. You have hurt not only yourself, but you have hurt the citizens of Narnia, and a Daughter of Eve you've never even met."

"That means no, doesn't it?" Dudley asked.

"I didn't say no, but don't expect a reward for the chaos that you have created," the lion said sternly. "Do you wish to help me or not? It is entirely your choice."

The boy thought for a moment and nodded. "What do I have to do?"

"We shall ride to Cair Paravel and with hope and time on our side, then we shall reach the castle before the girls do," Aslan said.

"How can we? They have a head start," Dudley asked as Aslan motioned for Oreius to come towards him.

"We have our ways," Aslan said. "You will ride on my back, and we shall get to the castle quickly. I know every nook and cranny of Narnia, and we have my navigation to guide us."

Dudley nodded and without any further arguments, he climbed on the back of the lion and buried his face in the golden mane. As Aslan began to run through the meadow, Dudley closed his eyes. The nightmare was now turning into a dream, and he knew that even if he never got to come back to Narnia, he'd never forget this moment not as long as he lived.

* * *

_a/n: I decided to throw a few references in about Digory. We all know that he was the Professor in LWW, but what was he a professor in? I took a few creative liberties with this, hopefully no one will take this too seriously or get upset with me for using him as a reference point._

_Please read and review, and thanks a bunch to you kind folks who have reviewed the story thus far. You guys are totally awesome._


	12. Chapter 12

_a/n: Part 12 is finally here, tweaked, and ready to be read. My new thing is cookies for reviews. Enjoy. To my reviewers, kudos, cookies, and bunches of thanks for reading and bearing with me as I try to get these updates out in a timely manner. Sometimes I get so busy with writing that my mind is the first to go. _

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* * *

Part 12**

The shining towers of Cair Paravel beckoned the friends from a small distance and Mary Sue could feel the relief washing over her. It's about darn time, she thought to herself as she continued to walk uncomfortably, her steps now an unenthusiastic trudge. She was quickly growing tired of the wind blowing the frilly pink dress she wore, and on top of that, she was rather sick of tripping clumsily over the skirt of it all the while in shoes that were too dainty for hiking, and a color that would invite indigestion upon seeing them.

From the toes of the shoes, she managed to see a bright red nail polish that covered her toes, and she had a hard time not gagging upon sight.

"I had nearly forgotten how much I loathe wearing dresses," she grumbled as she felt Tumnus patting her hand comfortingly from beside her. The faun seemed to be having an easier time walking than she did, and for a fleeting instant, she took in his appearance and spoke. "You're so lucky, you don't have to wear such ridiculous clothes."

The faun smiled as he looked down at his bare chest and the red colored scarf that was wound around his neck. "True, but Mary Sue, Aslan will help you, of that I am certain."

"Well, let me put it this way, he better help me or I'll make him look like a rapper with Bob Marley braids, and I'm not kidding either."

"Bob Who?" Mr. and Mrs. Beaver turned around and Mary Sue groaned. She had forgotten that her Narnian friends had no idea who she was referring to, but Donna, Mary Beth and the other two girls giggled.

"Yeah, I could see it," Christie said snickering. "Could you imagine him going on tour in Narnia? Aslan and the Wailers…there are enough girls for it."

Mary Sue sighed. Talk about a bad pun, but she had started it and thus was left feeling rather like Dr. Frankenstein. "Christie, that was awful," she said trying to conceal a smirk.

The girl shrugged her shoulders and by this time they had reached the gates of Cair Paravel, and stopped when they noticed that the gate was up and there was no way for them to enter the grounds.

"What now?" Mary Beth wondered.

Mary Sue took a step towards the gate and reached out her hand with the intention of drawing on the chord and hoping that someone would come and let them in. She hated this, she felt not only like something straight out of a 'Little Miss Muffet' story, but she knew that one glance into a mirror, and she would hate with a passion what she would see.

After several seconds had passed, she found herself looking up at one of the centaurs, and she guessed that he was a soldier stationed to guard the entrance. He was larger than life, his chest covered with a silver plate of armor and he looked down at the group, through skeptical brown eyes.

"Yes?" He asked and Mary Sue swallowed the lump that had somehow lodged itself in the back of her throat, but remembering what Aslan had told her early on, she bowed slightly, mostly out of respect, but also out of sheer humiliation at facing this creature with such a laughable appearance.

"My name is Mary Sue Hudson," she began and noting that the centaur smirked upon hearing her first name. Frustration gripped her and she angrily stamped her foot and put her hands on her hips. "Did I say anything funny?" She asked pointedly.

"No," the centaur recovered and looked down at her, this time trying without much success to keep a serious look on his face. "Please continue."

"Aslan has sent us to warn the Kings and Queens of an invasion of the most horrible kind that is moving towards Cair Paravel," Mary Sue said continued. "There's a drove of girls coming in this direction, they have been transformed by Turkish delight, and we were asked to warn you of their migration."

"Oh really? And what would this professed army look like?" The centaur asked skeptically and Mary Sue was tempted to kick him in the shin, but instead she lowered her head and continued, a loud sigh emerging.

"I'm telling the truth," she said. "My friends can attest to that. Mr. Tumnus is here, and he has been a long time friend of Queen Lucy."

The centaur looked at Tumnus. "I see," he addressed the faun. "How did this come about?"

The faun looked at the centaur. "We must not question whether or not Mary Sue is speaking the truth, it should be enough that Aslan has sent her with this news, and he shall be giving her a task once he sees her here."

"I haven't seen Aslan in nearly fifteen years, how would I know that this is the truth?" The centaur asked skeptically. "I'm sorry, but in such a dress as that, I have a very hard time taking you seriously."

Mary Sue looked at her friends as the centaur backed away from the gate and closed it before she could utter another word.

"What now?" She asked none of them in particular, but her voice was etched in defiance.

Mary Beth shook her head. "I don't know, Aslan isn't here, and I'm at a loss."

Mary Sue took a deep breath. "If I was myself, then there wouldn't be a question of my validity or my truthfulness. But in this get-up, I can't even take myself seriously."

"Perhaps not, but maybe you're like this to prove to yourself that you must look beyond appearances," Mrs. Beaver said gently. "You are not defined by your ability to fight, but perhaps you must discover that what you look like is not comparable to what lies inside of you."

Mary Sue shook her head. "I just think that I'd rather listen to philosophy on another day. Right now, time is running out, and I don't care what that centaur said, and if I end up living out the rest of my days in a dungeon below the walls of Cair Paravel, then it's a far cry better than having let Aslan down. We have to get inside." She reached into the basket she carried and pulled out a long and sturdy rope.

"What are you going to do?" Tumnus asked.

"I'm going to get myself inside, that's what I'm going to do. Once I get beyond the walls, then I can open the gate from the inside and then you guys can come inside. I'm not going to stand here and wait for some boorish centaur to open the door and listen to us, when he obviously has no desire to do so. It's now time to act, and we're going to see just who it is that is more determined, him or me."

"This is suicide," Donna and Alice muttered simultaneously.

"If it is, then have my eulogy read that I gave my life for a pink-free Narnia," she muttered as she aimed the rope and threw it, the loop hitting a gargoyle that was in the shape of a lion's head and she could see that it knotted its way around it.

She pulled on the rope to assure that it was affixed to the statue and then with a satisfied nod, she turned back to face her friends. "Wait at the door, I'll get over the wall and then will open it from the inside."

"You're crazy," Christie muttered.

"Yeah, maybe I am, but at least I won't let this nonsense control me," she said with a casual wave of her hand.

After several seconds, the young girl started to scale the wall, her blonde hair constantly getting in her face, the dress still fluttering in the breeze and she had to take a deep breath and practically had to scale the wall with hair in her eyes. Seconds later, she had reached the top of the wall and a sigh of relief washed over her. I really hate this, she thought to herself, but managed to make her way along the top of the wall until she reached a stairwell that would lead down the stairs and into the courtyard. As luck would have, no one was on the wall, and she was able to make it to the stairwell undetected.

As she descended the stairs, the darkened stairwell made it practically impossible for her to actually get down the flight of stairs without stumbling a few times.

Once she reached the landing, she slowly opened the door and peered out across the courtyard. On one side, she could see a dark headed girl practicing with a bow and arrows, and across the way, two boys were fencing. She sighed as she recognized them to be the current kings and queen. This was truly like stepping into a fairy tale.

"How did you get in here?" A stern voice suddenly broke into her thoughts after several minutes of staring and she looked up when she saw the centaur coming towards her.

"Oh great, it's Mr. Congeniality again," she grumbled under her breath.

"I think I told you already that your little stories are not welcomed here," the centaur snapped. "How did you get inside?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Mary Sue said angrily. "I already told you that Aslan sent my friends and me here to warn the present Kings and Queens of danger. You thought I was joking, probably because I have been put under a spell. I was forced to eat Turkish delight, which transformed my appearance and made me look like a freaking powder puff girl."

"I think she's telling the truth, Ottoman," a voice emerged and Mary Sue found herself looking up and into the warm eyes of a girl who looked to be about seventeen. "My name is Lucy Pevensie," she introduced herself and extended her hand to the younger girl. "You said that Aslan sent you?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Mary Sue tried to execute some sort of bow, but it came across looking unnatural and silly.

"Forget that," Lucy said shrugging off the awkward movements and instead offered a warm smile. "What can I do to help you? Or better said, what can my brothers, sister and I do to assist you?"

"This is so weird," Mary Sue began. "I was brought into Narnia to help Aslan, I mean; he appeared to my friend, Mary Beth, and me, and now we've been traveling from Lantern Waste to get here to warn you and the others of what is to come."

Lucy nodded. "I see, so the rumors about the lovesickness are true?"

"You knew about that?" Mary Sue asked.

"Mr. Tumnus has been sending word to me about it, so yes, I knew that it was happening, I just didn't know that it was on the verge of reaching Cair Paravel," Lucy said. "Come, let's open the gate and let the others in, then we can talk more about what will happen."

Mary Sue nodded. "That sounds like a good idea, but what's with Mr. Congeniality over there?" She motioned in the direction of the centaur.

"He was attacked by girls in pink while on a hunt," Lucy said. "It took days for his mother to get the braids out of his tail. I think he feared that you would attack him. But you seem different although your appearance is rather strange."

"Believe me, I didn't choose it, in fact, I don't even want to see a mirror until Aslan has managed to get me back to what I was before all of this chaos happened. Your Majesty, do you think he will be able to reverse this spell?"

"No one in Narnia really knows the extent of Aslan's power, but I'm sure he will help you." She opened the gate and ushered the others inside, and once they had come in, she quickly closed and locked the gate. "Hello my friends," she greeted them. "Mr. Beaver, you look cleaner than you did when you were out with my brothers on a hunt. What happened, have you found a new lease on life?"

"No, it was my dear wife," he said with a slight grunt.

Mary Sue nodded. "He got attacked by the girls."

Mary Beth looked at Lucy. "We have to get the men out of the line of fire, Your Majesty. They aren't safe from this menace."

"Good luck, my two macho brothers are not going to kindly run and hide when there is a battle to be won," Lucy said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Although the idea of us fighting for them sounds rather delightful."

"It's not something to be taken lightly, Your Majesty," Tumnus broke his silence and Lucy looked into the eyes of her dearest Narnian friend.

"Oh but of course, Mr. Tumnus," Lucy said smiling at him. "You know I can take care of myself. But, all that aside, it's wonderful to see you again, as well as to know that you are safe," Lucy said smiling. "You and Mr. Beaver will help to convince my brothers to hide themselves from this possible onslaught. I shall go and get Susan to help us."

"That sounds great," Mary Sue said, but she continued to look around where they were standing. "I wonder where in the world Aslan is. He said he was going to give me a task when I reached Cair Paravel, and now that I am here, he's not bothering to show up. It's just like a man to be late for an appointment."

"He'll get here," Mary Beth said. "Unlike most men, he's rather reliable." The two girls remained with Lucy as the three girls and Mrs. Beaver went into the castle. She continued to watch as Tumnus and Mr. Beaver went over to where the two boys were fencing and sighing, she decided that there was nothing more for her to do than to seat herself on the ground and wait.


	13. Chapter 13

_a/n: Just to let you all know that I have been trying to work on other writing projects, including a translation piece, thus my postings being few and far between. I truly appreciate all your supportive comments and hope that you are enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing this._

_Cookies to all reviewers, you are all awesome!_

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Part 13**

Once she had taken care of her self appointed tasks, Lucy came over to where Mary Sue was sitting. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier, Ottoman said that you must have had to scale the wall in order to get inside. That's quite an athletic undertaking." The young queen's voice was etched in pride, and this took Mary Sue aback.

"Hey, adrenaline can help you do some amazing and sometimes scary things," Mary Sue said smiling slightly. "My only wish is that we could have met without me looking like a wedding cake exploded. It's embarrassing."

Lucy smiled. "It will all be alright once Aslan gets here."

"I am here," a voice emerged and Lucy turned around and smiled. Standing before them was Aslan. Standing on one side of the mighty lion was Dudley, the dark headed boy regarding them through unhappy eyes.

"So, what are you going to do about this?" Mary Sue asked as she stood up and regarded the lion through critical eyes. "You said that the honey-dew was supposed to work, but here I am still dressed like a freak."

Aslan nodded, but motioned with his head towards the boy who was with him. "Dudley is going to explain what happened and why."

"So you're the one behind this 'Nutty Professor' story gone amuck, huh?" Mary Sue shouted, and started towards the boy. "When I get my hands on you, you're going to wish you were never born, geek boy."

"I probably deserve that," Dudley mused with an unhappy shrug of his shoulders, but no further words emerged.

"Probably? You ain't just whistling Dixie, buddy. Look at me, I look like something out of 'Fairy Tale Theater'. You did this to me, Dr. Frankenstein, and I did absolutely nothing to hurt you. You gave the girls the Turkish delight and now it has turned me into my own worst nightmare after they forced me to eat it. I've not caught the lovesickness, at least not yet, but I might as well have, because no one here takes me seriously, they take one look at me and think I'm some sort of freaking joke. And I have you to thank for that. Tell me, what ever did I do to hurt you and why in the name of all that is holy did you think dragging Narnia into this insanity would redeem you?"

"I don't know," Dudley mused. "I'm really sorry that this happened to you. I guess when I planned everything, I didn't realize what I had done until Aslan…"

"If I was Aslan, I'd have mauled you," Mary Sue snapped.

"Thankfully you're not," the lion responded dryly. "I know that you are angry with him May Sue, but you are now both on the same side."

"I don't think so," Mary Sue looked at the noble lion. "I'm just like him, though. I have been hurt by things, and have been so angry that I wanted to throw something, but I never decided to concoct a revenge scheme. I know that kids can be cruel to each other, the girls at my school aren't always nice to me, they are superficial, at best, and the threat the boys like they are gods. The point is, I am an outcast among my peers too, but that means that we outcasts can make a choice. We can either stick together or bury ourselves in our heartache and pain and not ever realize that in every school, there are at least two or three kids who have been there and done that."

"You don't know what it's like, from what I hear, you're athletic," he said. "I'm about as athletic as a hockey puck."

"Maybe you shouldn't feel sorry for what you don't have, but be happy about what you do have. Dudley, you used your gifts of scientific knowledge to bring harm to those who never did anything to hurt you. Mr. Tumnus' cave is beyond repair, the Beavers' dam was wrecked, trees all throughout Narnia have been damaged, and even stone table has been laid waste to because you were angry with a bunch of superficial nitwits. You could have used your knowledge to do something much better than what you did. Now Narnia isn't what it was created to be and that's really sad. The Narnians and Aslan never did anything to hurt you, yet they suffered because of what you have done."

"I know that now," Dudley said miserably. "And I'm sorry…"

Mary Sue went over to the boy and rested her hand on his shoulder. "You know, you're not the only one who is different, and it's the geeks and the people who are different who are going to be the ones to make a difference in the future. Maybe one day if you and Mary Beth decide to work together, then you'll find a cure for cancer or something. But this sort of action does both this world and our world more harm than good. It also has done nothing more than put others at risk."

Aslan nodded. "You see, you really didn't need a sword, Mary Sue."

"Perhaps not, but Aslan, they're still on their way, and we're going to have to fight them," she said.

Dudley shook his head. "No you won't, as long as all the men are gone, then there is nothing that they can do."

"What about the Turkish delight?" Mary Sue asked.

"It's no longer chemically changed," Dudley said. "Part of the revenge was to get them here and have them start molting in the middle of a battle, and if I have timed things out right, then the molting will start just before sunrise tomorrow morning."

Mary Sue nodded. "Right when they get here," she nodded, but looked at the lion. "Aslan, I still think it might be safer for you to be with the other guys when the girls get here."

"Why do you suppose?" The lion asked and Lucy began to giggle.

"I think I know," she said and smiled. "After all, Aslan, you are the 'cat's meow'." As both she and Mary Sue began to giggle, Aslan looked sternly at them.

Mary Sue nodded. "She's right, you know. I remember when I first got here how you ran away from them, and although that seemed so out of character to you, I think I could see why you did it, there's power in numbers." She took a deep breath. "Let's just say that I would feel a lot better if I knew that you were safe away from all of this."

Lucy smiled as she brushed her hand across Aslan's mane. "Besides that, pink doesn't suit you."

Mary Sue looked down at her dress and then broke into another broad smile. "I think I may have figure out how to use this misfortune to our advantage," she began.

"What do you have in mind?" Aslan asked.

"I saw this in a movie once," Mary Sue began. "Tell me, Is Mrs. Beaver's sewing machine here?"

"Yes," Lucy said.

"Then let's break out the pink frills, this idea is probably one of my best ideas since coming to Narnia," Mary Sue said smiling as she looked at Dudley. "If they see normal girls, they'll try to stuff us with Turkish delight, right?"

"Yes," Dudley said. "I think you already figure out how they believe in the concept of power in numbers."

"Great, then we should gather all of them together somewhere. Dudley, you're going to stick around, but if you are as intent on helping us rid Narnia of this pink menace, then you will have to get your hands on some of the honey-dew serum."

The boy looked at Aslan. "Honey-dew?"

"It's the antidote, your classmate Mary Beth developed it," he said with a slow nod.

"Maybe I underestimated her," he said appreciatively.

"Maybe you underestimated everything, but at least you're trying to make things right again," Mary Sue said. "Queen Lucy, can you help us organize our forces?"

"With pleasure," the youngest Narnian monarch said with a smile.

With that, she went over to the group that had assembled and Mary Sue looked at Aslan. "I really am doing this without a sword."

"You don't always need a sword, you just need your courage to speak up when the time comes," Aslan said with a nod. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to join the others in the castle and leave the fate of Narnia in all of your capable hands. Dudley, make sure you don't break character, I know you are not all that fond of acting."

The boy nodded and smiled weakly. "I won't let you down again, Aslan."

Once the lion was gone, Mary Beth looked at Dudley. "You're cool, but don't forget that revenge never works, it always seems to backfire somewhere down the road."

Dudley nodded, "I won't forget that," he said, but before he could continue, they could hear the sound of banging emerging from outside the gates. "What on earth?"

"Maybe they're not as navigationally challenged as we thought," Mary Sue muttered.

"No," Dudley swallowed and looked up. "It's Rumblebuffin."

"The giant? The same one who was doing pirouettes through Lantern Waste?" Mary Sue asked, but her eyes glanced up and sure enough a pair of dark eyes were looking down at them. Blonde rope like locks of hair hung down either side of the giant's pudgy face and had this not been so serious, Mary Sue would probably have started to laugh hysterically.

"At your service," the giant said, he could hear very well after all and had picked up on Mary Sue and Dudley's conversation. "I seem to have gotten into a wee bit of trouble. I have a weakness for sweets, you see, and someone left some positively delicious Turkish delight near me mum's cave and well…I ate it, and now I look a fright."

Mary Sue smiled as she remembered the conversation that had taken place at the Beavers' dam. One of the beavers had informed her that the giant was feeling the effects of this lovesickness and it was his state that gave off the impression that it was contagious like a flu or cold.

"This obviously has an effect on boys too," Mary Sue concluded.

The boy nodded. "It does, but it doesn't change one's personality, only their appearance. That's why it didn't change you so much."

Mary Sue nodded. "Rumblebuffin, pick me up, but carefully."

"I don't want to hurt you, Missy," the giant called out.

"Don't worry, just don't step on me," Mary Sue said and waited. When he didn't move, she called up to him. "If you pick me up, I can give you some of the honey-dew remedy, and that should reverse the effects of the Turkish delight."

The giant did as she instructed, and she managed to give him several of the drops of the antidote. "You need more, you're bigger," she concluded and once he had taken it and returned her to the ground, they watched as he transformed back to himself.

Once he was transformed, he looked out across the horizon. "They're on their way, the pinks are coming," he reported. "They should be here by daybreak if they keep traveling at that pace."

The two children nodded as the truth washed over them and they looked at one another. There was not a moment to lose, so they raced through the courtyard and over to where the others had gathered.

Mary Sue looked around the group of girls as Mary Beth looked at her and spoke. "OK, Mary Sue, the floor is yours, what do you want us to do?" The group grew abruptly quiet and Mary Sue began to outline her plan.

"We need to get all the pink fabric we can find and sew some dresses," Mary Sue said. "The girls are on their way, Rumblebuffin saw them in the distance and he guessed that they will probably get here by daybreak, so we should have the dresses finished by them and make us look like them."

"Why can't we just take some Turkish delight?" Alice asked.

"I will not be responsible for you getting into the same fix that I'm in," Mary Sue said. "I haven't changed back, and I don't want to put your lives on the line. Tonight we sew dresses, and tomorrow we wait for the onslaught. Any questions?"

"No, you're the leader," Mary Beth said smiling. "Just like the team captain in baseball."

Mary Sue smiled her first real smile since coming to Narnia. For the first time in her life she felt needed and appreciated and this was the greatest feeling in the world. Maybe Aslan had been right, maybe she could help Narnia without swinging her fist. She looked around the group of girls and Dudley before they split into groups and set about the task at hand.


	14. Chapter 14

_Welcome to the second to last chapter of this little ditty. I appreciate all the comments and feedback on the story. I hope that you are enjoying this little escapade and let me know what you think. I have enjoyed writing this, and once Part 15 is posted, then the story is complete. Enjoy._

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**Part 14**

As morning dawned, Mary Sue opened her eyes. She had been sitting at a sewing machine for most of the night, her hands now sore from the work she had subjected them to. She was notably tired as she had barely slept during the time she had been in Narnia, and having slept sitting up made her back ache somewhat and her body felt as though it had been subjected to hours of aerobic exercise as opposed to sleep.

After one quick glance down at her clothes, she released a pent up sigh. She could tell that she was still dressed in the pink lace dress without even looking, the itchy fabric feeling as though it was going to give her a rash of some kind from prolonged exposure.

She had tried the night before to take the dress off, but after moments of swearing, she realized that the attempts had been futile, the dress would not come off and she could not change clothes. A final groan and frustrated tears, she eventually gave up the attempt. The dress stuck to her like glue and she was simply not sure what to do about it.

Ottoman had at least apologized for treating her like a freakazoid, but Mary Sue was thoroughly convinced that Queen Lucy had chewed him up one side and down the other about his attitude. Of course, Mary Sue did try to react to the abrasive centaur kindly, but she decided to take advantage of the situation and ask the pending question that had been on her mind since her conversation with Lucy earlier that day.

"Why didn't the monarchs just do something about the pink menace instead of having Aslan send for me? As Kings and Queens of Narnia, they should very well have known what was coming their way, and have already done something to prevent it, specifically if Tumnus was sending Lucy news regarding the goings on in Lantern Waste," she had said. "It just seems really weird and in the worst of taste to leave such loyal subjects to fend for themselves in this regard."

"I agree," Ottoman had conveyed to her. "However, given the news that was conveyed to me, her Majesty Queen Lucy had received word of what was going on, and Aslan did come and inform her of what would be happening. When I said I hadn't seen him in fourteen years, that had been the truth, he had only appeared to Queen Lucy. She later told me as well as her other advisors that he was intending on seeking the help from another Daughters of Eve instead of making the present monarchs once more go off to battle."

"So in other words, even though they knew, they really didn't have the capacity to fight it?" Mary Sue had asked and Ottoman had nodded.

"It's like playing a game without knowing the rules," the centaur had said before taking his leave and returning to his own chamber.

"A game," Mary Sue whispered as she continued to rub her eyes. "There was a game to them, these girls were playing a game, and they had the advantage because they know the rules to that game and we don't."

"What are you talking about?" A voice emerged as she raised her head to see that Mrs. Beaver was standing next to her, a pile of pink fabric was lying over her front paws and she was regarding Mary Sue with obvious puzzlement.

"I just realized something. Mrs. Beaver, part of the problem with all these girls ambushing us or the males here is because they are playing a sort of game with us."

"I don't follow, dear," the kindly beaver responded.

"Well, do you remember when we were attacked at the stone table?" Mary Sue asked.

"Yes, how could I forget? You were trapped between them," Mrs. Beaver said.

"Dudley said yesterday that there is power in numbers, but what if we play the cards our way and lure the whole crowd of them into a labyrinth?" Mary Sue mused.

"There is a labyrinth here," the beaver affirmed. "Mr. Beaver and King Peter used it to have races when the High King was younger."

"If we can lure all of them into that labyrinth, we can probably trap them there until their Turkish delight wears off. If we have all them in various places throughout the labyrinth then they will lose their powers because their overall numbers will be less and they will have no way of contacting each another. If they have any of the old Turkish delight left, then Mary Beth and I will need to get all our people some of the honeydew."

"That sounds like a workable plan," the beaver said.

"Good then we have our idea, so what we should do is have all our people meet me by the labyrinth entrance before first light. We need to be ready before they get there," Mary Sue said and the beaver scurried off.

This had to work, she thought, it just had to.

"It's a good plan, Mary Sue, and I am certain that it will work," a voice suddenly emerged and she turned around and was face to face with Aslan. "We could not have come this far without you."

"It's not me, Aslan, I tried to go against them, but I failed and ended up this," she shook her head. "I wanted to help so badly."

"And you did," he said. "Tell me what you have learned through this adventure."

"I learned that I had friends, and that it's a really good feeling," she said with a casual shrug of her shoulders.

"Is that not the best feeling that exists? You came to Narnia to battle something that was a hindrance to you, but Mary Sue, what you have already battled was an ego that said that in order to go through life you must be strong. You have convinced yourself that love in general is a sign of weakness and that it was only for the frail at heart."

"It is though, I mean, Aslan, people fall in love everyday, and I have seen more girls do stupid things to make a boy notice them than I'd care to count. They write poetry and send letters and the boys simply aren't interested. These same girls become nuisances because they have this idea of love and romance whirling about in their heads, and that makes them do things that most would consider stupid."

"They wanted to be perfect, Mary Sue, but there is nothing perfect, not in your world, not in Narnia, not anywhere. The pink fluff and the whole bit about swooning over guys can be nice, if not taken to extremes. Do you know now why it is you didn't change after being forced to eat Turkish delight?"

"No, why?" She asked softly.

"Easy, it was your will," he said. "Deep in your heart, you know that there is no perfect girl for a perfect boy, you have an air of realism in you, and that says that when it happens it happens, but you will not force it. You know that all the things that make up what you are is not determined by how many boys you can sucker punch or outplay in baseball. What all of this means is that you are learning how to fight an even more empowering sort of battle. It's a battle of your willingness to fight against societal expectations as well as your own expectations of self. Your peers think you are strange because you don't worry yourself with dances and boys, but Mary Sue, that doesn't make you odd, it makes you who you are. You are a different person than they are, and it is here where you are seeing the benefits to being just that. You are still Mary Sue Hudson, star third-baseman for your school's softball team, and holder of top marks in your history class. You learned in Narnia the importance of teamwork, and you made a friend for life in Mary Beth, but most importantly, you learned that being a leader is not just about doing everything on your own, but in letting others help you attain a common goal."

"So you're saying that I didn't come here to battle against this pink invasion?" She asked.

"Yes, and your plan is a good one, as I said, but you're also here to learn about the person that you are. It is a very special thing, and you have pleased me," he said.

"But what about my appearance, I mean; how can you talk seriously with me when I look like Narnia's version of comic relief?" She asked.

"Just remember Mary Sue, I can see much further than the external," he said. "Without this experience, you would have never been inspired to take the next step. All of the ideas you have about defeating the pink menace came about when you became one of them on a physical level. Not to worry, you won't be that way forever."

Before she could respond, Queen Lucy came running up to them. "Rumblebuffin says that the girls are just outside the gates, we need to get to the labyrinth now."

Mary Sue looked at Aslan. "Go and hide, we have a battle to win."

"Good luck, Daughter of Eve," the lion said before disappearing and Mary Sue reached for Lucy's hand and the two of them raced through the courtyard towards the labyrinth entrance.

As she reached the girls, she looked around before making eye contact with them. "Mary Beth, does everyone have some honeydew in their possession?"

"They should, when we finished the dresses, we managed to get everyone supplied with it, and we put it in the baskets that we have," Mary Beth said.

Mary Sue nodded. "I can also see that you all managed to sew Aslan's sign into the sleeves of the dresses so we can tell ourselves apart from the invaders," Mary Sue said. "That was a stroke of genius, Mary Beth."

The scientist smiled. "Well, actually Dudley suggested it."

"OK, then what we have to do is just run in the direction of the labyrinth, the girls will follow, like in the Pied Piper of Hamelin," Mary Sue said.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Queen Susan asked. "Realistically, it doesn't seem feasible."

"It has to work, if they see that it looks as though their cohorts are running into the labyrinth, they're bound to follow," Mary Beth said. "Once they lose them in the labyrinth then those brainless twits will not know what to do. They haven't the courage or the clout to scale the walls of the labyrinth the way Mary Sue scaled the walls of Cair Paravel."

"OK," Queen Susan said and watched as Donna, Alice, Christie, Mary Beth, and Mary Sue walked slowly towards the entrance. "But, won't our people get lost too?"

"No," Mary Sue said. "I have another plan for that."

"What?" Queen Lucy asked.

Mary Sue pulled out several green colored spools of thread. "We'll use this. Queen Lucy, you conceal yourself right next to the entrance, and hold the end of these spools while the five of us go in. Once we're inside, and we've managed to lose the girls in the labyrinth, then we'll come back out by way of these spools. Those dingbats probably won't see it, and they'll be too busy molting to pay us any mind."

"Then we seem to have everything planned," Mary Beth said and glanced up. "Just in time too, 'cause here they come."

Mary Sue nodded, as Lucy concealed herself and she glanced skyward before she handed the queen her spool and she began to squeal loudly. "I just saw King Edmund running in through here," she shouted so that the girls at the entrance would hear her words.

"Are you mad?" Mary Beth snapped.

"No, it's part of the plan," Mary Sue said firmly. "Quick give Queen Lucy your end," she hissed as she began to squeal excitedly. "Oh Your Majesty, do wait for me, I want to shower you with kisses."

She began to run excitedly into the labyrinth and Mary Beth ran after her. "King Peter are you in here too?" Mary Beth shouted out, her voice not as convincing, but that did not seem to matter, the first of the girls had heard enough.

Both Queen Lucy and Queen Susan shook their heads, but watched as the three other girls did the same and ran inside as the swarm of pinks started to run towards the entrance. Within minutes, the droves of pink fluff had all disappeared inside the labyrinth.

Squeals of 'King Peter, make me your queen', and 'King Edmund, I love you,' floated through the air as the thirty or forty girls quickly rushed past the two queens and Lucy shook her head, all the while surprised that Mary Sue's plan was actually working.

Both Queens could hear the squeals of girls, but now it was established, the entire pink army was trapped inside the labyrinth. Susan looked at her younger sister. "Where do you suppose Mary Sue and the others are?"

"All we can do is wait," Lucy responded. "That and not let go of the spools, as that is their only way out."

Lucy nodded and within seconds Aslan came over to them. "You should be in hiding," she said.

"No need, the entire army of pinks are now in the labyrinth," he said, with a nod. "Thankfully so, if they had seen me, they'd have braided my mane to look like Bob Marley."

"Who?" Both Susan and Lucy looked at him.

"Just a reference to something Mary Sue said," the wise lion chuckled as they stared in the direction of the labyrinth and waited.


	15. Chapter 15

**Part 15**

Inside the labyrinth, Mary Sue was running. Three of the pinks were running behind her and she could only guess that they might have recognized her as the one they had cornered at the stone table. Either that, or they actually thought she knew something about the males who she had pretended to have seen, but who were not there at all. From all around, she could hear excited squeals emerging, sounding as though she was in the middle of pig calling contest instead of a labyrinth. After some time had passed, the echoes of sound suddenly disappeared, thus leaving the area completely quiet.

By this time, the early morning sunlight was shining in through the large bushes that made up the labyrinth. She could feel a small amount of warmth, but not enough to distinguish what was going on around her. Dudley's words reentered her consciousness as she regarded how the three pinks had sunk to the ground and the girls were now stuffing Turkish delight into their mouths as though the sweets made up their very life force.

She watched in absolute disgust as the girls realized that they were not changing back into pinks, but instead were molting away. A small smirk covered her face as she stood watching as bunches of blonde hair started falling from their heads. As the strands of molting blonde locks hit the ground, the light yellow color meshed together with the pink from the molting dresses, thus mixing together to create a pumpkin orange color glop with the consistency of molasses.

"What is happening to me?" One of the girls moaned.

"Eat more," her friend instructed and Mary Sue watched as the three girls continued to stuff bite after bite of Turkish delight in their mouths.

Oh man, is this ever disgusting? Mary Sue thought, but continued to watch as the girls continued to molt, the pink disappearing and soon they were left dressed in blue jeans and sweatshirts. One of the girls looked up at Mary Sue and spoke. "Why aren't you changing back?"

"Are you kidding?" Mary Sue asked with a smirk. "Maybe I look like this in real life." She watched as the girls regarded her with wonder, but she remained standing some feet away from them. Eventually, one of them spoke.

"Why won't you help us?" She asked as her eyes faded from being a bright blue to a dull hazel color.

"Why should I? Who helped Dudley when he was being tormented on the schoolyard? Who came to my rescue when I was forced to eat Turkish delight at the stone table? Now that you three are alone, you have no one to help you, and the only thing that Turkish delight is going to enhance is your waistline."

With that she started to turn away.

"You can't leave us here," one of the girls moaned.

"Watch me, oh, and by the way, none of the kings are actually stupid enough to come into this place, and even Aslan has gone into hiding. You came into this labyrinth on your own accord, now let's see you try and find a way out."

"You're lying, King Peter will rescue us, and he will no doubt make us princesses in the court," the second girl said.

"Dudley was right, that only changed their appearance, they're still as pathetic as they had always been," Mary Sue grumbled and started to make her way back through the labyrinth in the direction of the exit, the thread she wound around her hand as she walked.

All around her, she could see that girls were either stuffing sweets into their mouths, molting or both. After several minutes of watching, Mary Sue pulled the small bottle of honeydew out of her dress pocket and went over to a group of girls. "Do you want some of what I have?" She asked. "There's no point in leaving you to suffer like this."

Several of the girls looked up at her, but after some time had passed, they weakly nodded.

One by one, Mary Sue administered the honeydew and watched as the girls miraculously transformed back to themselves. She continued this task until all the girls she could find had been given some of the antidote and were once more normal (if one could call it that).

Moments after the last girl had been treated; she made her way towards the entrance where she met with the small group that had assembled. "It's over," she said as she approached Aslan. "I gave every girl I found some of the honeydew and they started to turn normal again." She looked at Dudley. "I can understand why you did all of this, but I'm glad that you realized that you didn't have to stoop to their level." She smiled impishly. "But, something tells me that Cheerleading will never be the same again."

"What do you mean?" Mary Beth asked.

"Well," Mary Sue said with a snicker. "The speed in which those girls were eating Turkish delight would indicate to me that their hips would probably no longer fit through an average sized door."

Dudley shrugged. "Not really, I sort of did this with reduced calorie sweets."

"Such a pity," Mary Sue said with a smirk. "It would have been so nice to see them blow up like the blueberry girl in that Willy Wonka film."

Lucy shrugged her shoulders not fully understanding what she had said, but the other girls began to giggle. After several moments, the youngest queen spoke. "You saved the men here."

Aslan nodded. "You did, and before I send you all back to your world, I think I ought to send all of those girls back home and give you some extra time." As he spoke, the entire entrance to the labyrinth disappeared and Mary Beth looked at him.

"You were able to find the portal?" She asked.

"Anything that affects Narnia, I can find," the lion said confidently as King Peter, King Edmund, Tumnus, and the beavers ran over to them.

"Is the battle over?" Peter asked drawing his sword.

"Hey, hot shot, hold off playing hero, you don't want put an eye out with that thing," Mary Sue dodged her way away from him and Tumnus covered his mouth with his hand and listened. "We were brought here to do a job and that's what we did. Now, I don't know if we saved Narnia, I mean you guys probably would have figured things out without us having come here."

"But you did save Narnia, Mary Sue," Mr. Beaver said.

"I only did what I had to do and speaking of which, Aslan, what was that task you wanted me to do once I got to Cair Paravel anyway?" Mary Sue asked.

The mighty lion smiled. "Your task was to discover the value of your friends, and to learn that friends show up in the strangest of situations, but now you will be able to recognize them. You weren't brought into Narnia to be a great warrior, Mary Sue, you came here with another task in mind, and that was to find in yourself the leader that you are. Through that, you have become a lady of words and wisdom."

"A lady?" Mary Sue asked. "Me?"

"Bow to me," he said.

"I beg your pardon," she arched an eyebrow.

"I want you to bow to me," he repeated those same words. "Not as you would a king, for that is what I am, but bow to me as you would a friend."

"A friend? I don't bow to my friends, I'm on the same level as them," she argued.

"Exactly, but Mary Sue this is part of your task, now I want you to bow," he commanded.

The young girl lowered her head as Aslan placed a paw on her shoulder. "Now arise, 'Mary Sue Pink Slain', Lady of Narnia." He turned and faced Mary Beth, and gave her the same title. "Now, whatever happens, never forget what you, Daughters of Eve, have done."

Mary Sue smiled, but as she looked down at herself, she swallowed. "Aslan, before you send us home, would you please do something about this pink menace?"

The lion inhaled sharply and as he exhaled, Mary Sue's dress changed back into the jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing when she first came into Narnia. The squashed piece of bubble gum was still in the pocket and her hair was once more cropped short. "Fish, right?" Mary Sue asked with a coy grin on her face.

"Yes, well, I met some penguins who were on their way to a place called Madagascar and they introduced me to a brand of sushi, and well, being a lion of many tastes, I thought I'd give it a try and discovered it to be quite tasty."

"Whatever you say, but might I suggest that next time, you not forget the after dinner breath mint?" Mary Sue chided as she nudged him with her elbow.

The mighty lion chuckled and looked at her with a nod. "I won't forget," he said and looked at the three remaining children, Alice, Donna, and Christie had all gone home with the other girls, and Dudley, Mary Beth, and Mary Sue were the only children remaining. "Are you three ready to go home now?"

"That would depend, will I be able to stay in touch with Mary Beth and Dudley after we get there?" She asked.

"Yes, they live in the same town, they just go to a different school than you, you can see them any time you want," Aslan affirmed as he looked at the other children. "And you can go and see Mary Sue play tomorrow at midtown ball park."

The two children nodded.

"So, my task is now over?" She asked.

"Yes," he said. "You can say good-bye now." He backed away from them as the four monarchs came over to them.

"We thank you all for what you did to help us," King Peter said.

"It was our pleasure, Your Majesty," Mary Beth responded formally.

"Have a safe trip home," Lucy said.

"I'm sure Aslan Air will make sure of that," Mary Sue said coyly, but embraced the youngest Narnian monarch.

Seconds later, the four Pevensies were gone and the only ones left were the two beavers and Tumnus.

"We're going to miss you, Mary Sue," Mrs. Beaver said.

"I'll miss you too," she said and embraced the two beavers one after the other.

"Thankfully you're not still covered in pink," Mr. Beaver said as he and his wife waved their paws at the three children and left.

Finally, Tumnus remained. "Take care, Daughter of Eve," the Faun said gently.

"You too," she said, and somewhere in the corner of her eye, she could feel a tear forming. No, I'm not going to cry, that would be too stupid, she thought to herself, but after several moments, she shook her head. "I'm going to miss you, Mr. Tumnus, thanks for helping me after I got here," she whispered softly.

"I shall miss you too, Mary Sue," he extended his hand to her and when she accepted it, he leaned down and formally kissed it. "Never forget Lady Mary Sue Hudson, that you are a Narnian hero, that you found your way by being a friend, and that even though you may not think love is a strength, it is a far better thing than being pink."

Mary Sue laughed softly. "I won't forget Mr. Tumnus," she said, and impulsively, she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Good-bye my friend."

"Mary Sue, you kissed me," he said smiling impishly at her.

"Yeah, don't let it go to your head," she smiled impishly as she watched the Narnian castle vanished before her eyes and then found herself standing back on the street where she had been at the beginning of the adventure.

As she stared down the street, she could feel the warmth of the sun on her arms. She rubbed her face as she suddenly heard her name being called and she turned around.

"Mary Sue?" Two voices chimed and she watched as two girls from her school's softball team were running towards her. "We need your help."

"What is it?" She asked.

"We just found out that we're scheduled to play the best team in the district tomorrow afternoon," one of the girls said, her voice out of breath.

"The best team? I thought we were the best team," Mary Sue objected.

"We were, but now we're up against a team that hasn't been beat even once this season," the girl said.

"Oh and what team would that be?" Mary Sue asked.

"The Lions…"

Mary Sue covered her face with her hands and groaned.

The End.

* * *

_a/n: As you can see, this is the end of the story. I don't plan on writing a sequel to this, and if you want one, you can always return to page one and start over. ;) I just want to thank those of you who read and reviewed the story, and I hope that you enjoyed my little (or not so little) parody here. As I said when I was posting earlier chapters, nothing here was written to make fun of or put down anyone. The story idea came about because of the monumental numbers of stories written with other characters falling in love with the book regulars and I thought it would be fun to take a dig at this concept of 'the perfect character'. Mary Sue Hudson is a character who is a lot like I was when I was about 14 or so (sans the baseball, I'm about as athletic as a doorstop)._

_As with any fan fiction piece, all general disclaimers apply. This is an amateur piece of writing and is not intended to infringe on any previously / currently held copyrights. I'm not making one red dime, Euro Cent, or box of Thin Mint girl scout cookies from the writing of this story. It's done for you, the readers, amen and hallelujah!_

_At any rate, I am glad to say that this story is completed, as always I love getting feedback about the stories I write, and my sincerest hope is that if you got something positive out of the story, then you'll let me know. Will I write another parody? I have no idea, will have to wait and see._

_Until next time…YvaJ._


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